Oscar Recap (a little late)

It's Tuesday and I just realized that I never posted anything about the Oscars. I was exhausted yesterday and it was all I could do to make it through the day. Then the Closer season finale was on last night (LOVE that show - no new episodes until June) :-( So I went to bed early and now today I feel a million times better. In fact, I even got up to walk on the treadmill this morning.

But I digress - the Oscars. We went to our annual Oscar party which was a lot of fun. I do have pictures of the peanut butter torte, but I will have to wait and download them tonight. It turned out pretty good, but it's not quite what I expected. I can be so picky about things sometimes. Our friends Jeff and Patti made meatball subs which were awesome. I have never had a meatball sub before!

But I guess I should actually talk about the show and not just the food. Unlike most of the critic reviews that I have read, I actually really enjoyed the show on Sunday. I liked the format and how they presented the awards in clusters. I thought they got some great presenters (Steve Martin, Tina Fey, Jack Black, Ben Stiller, Natalie Portman, Will Smith, to name a few). I also really enjoyed having 5 past winners for the actor categories, although that definitely made the show a little bit longer than it had to be for the Best Actor and Actress category. The only thing that I really could have done without was the musical number. I am not a huge fan of Beyounce, but she is showing up everywhere - what the heck?! Hugh Jackman did a great job as host. I hope that they keep some of the changes that they made or at the very least work to mix things up again next year.

In other household news - Sammy is still hiding and finding his dingo bone from Saturday. It's just so darn cute. Sometimes he hides it so well, I can't even find it and last night he jumped up on the top part of the couch to hide it up there. He needed some help from Mama to get back up there later to get it - crazy dog. I wonder how long this is going to last?

A little bit of this, a little bit of that . . .

I have been meaning to blog for a few days now, but just haven't felt like it.  So now as a result, here are random things that I have been saving up.  They are in no particular order.

Sammy found a new spot to explore in our house:

 

I have been an a mission to make a new set of potholders for our kitchen.  I crocheted the two that we had years ago and I can't remember how exactly to make them again.  So here are a few examples of ones that I don't like.  

Yesterday Uncas started working on his workbench in the basement.  Here are a couple of pictures of his progress.

 

 Uncas tried to go ice fishing yesterday using his new ice house, but it broke in two places as he was trying to put it up.  I feel terrible and we will have to send it back.  Poor guy - all that work to haul out the stuff and it was too cold to stay out there for very long without the shelter.

Sammy has been obsessed with hiding his Dingo bone.  I gave him one yesterday evening and I have enjoyed watching him *hide* it, find it and then *rehide* it again.  It was the first thing he wanted to do this morning - even before going outside.  I wonder how long he is going to keep this up?  It's pretty fascinating.

I am making a peanut butter torte for our annual Oscar party tonight.  I am pretty excited to go to Jeff and Patti's again and we will being seeing friends that we having seen in a year or more.  I will try and remember to take a picture of the torte before we start eating it.

And finally - a cute Sammy picture:

Saffy

I just received some updated pictures of my niece Saffy, from Jeanna her mom. A few were just too cute, so I had to share. She is almost 6 months old! I hope to make a trip to see her very soon!!!



Oh - and for all you inquiring minds - dinner with my friend last night was soooo much fun. We talked non-stop for 2 1/2 hours. We hope to get together again really soon. All those nerves for nothing! Although parking was a little difficult at first.

Blind Date

Ok - it's not really a blind date, but that's what it feels like to me. Tonight I am meeting a friend from grade school. Now living in Minnesota, most people from around here would think big deal, however, I went to grade school in IL. The grade school I went to was a small Lutheran school and I had 40 people in my graduating class. Of those 40, only 1 other person went to the same high school as me. I haven't really kept in touch with any of those 39 people (however my best friend Lisa from Seattle is one those people!)

Thanks to Facebook I recently discovered that one of my former classmates now lives up in Mpls too! Tonight we are meeting for dinner. I don't think I have seen her since 8th grade graduation which was 17 years ago (that number makes me feel old!!!). On one hand I am really excited to see her again - I can't wait to find out what she does for living, how her family is doing, what she thinks of Minnesota and of course to find out what she knows about other people we went to school with. But on the other hand - I am really nervous. As a rule I don't like going to new places by myself. And whenever I am meeting someone for dinner, I really hate being the first one to arrive. My co-worker today was giving me a pep talk, which seems so incredibly silly. I am almost 32 years old - you think this wouldn't be a big deal.

This all reminds me of Colleen. She's really a friend of a friend, but we did hang out a few times back in the day (i.e. stalking Jared Leto). This year she has decided to do something once a week that takes her outside her comfort zone. She has invited people to join the challenge and while it probably would be very good for me to do ( a lot of things make me squirm just thinking about them) I am going to stick to my challenage of running/walking 500 miles this year. So far everything that Colleen has done has been successful and usually a lot of fun. Which is a good reminder that often times I don't want to do something because it is uncomfortable and makes me incredibly nervous, but who knows what I could be missing out on!

So, on that note I am off to print out directions to the restaurant. And even though my stomach is all in knots - I am going to do my best to not get worried about getting lost, not being able to find a parking spot, that everyone will stop and stare at me while I walk into the place, and that I won't be able to recongize my friend and I am just going to try and enjoy the night!

Happy Valentine's Day 2009

I hope everyone had a wonderful Valentine's Day.  I think we had the best one yet!  It started out with us getting up at 8 am this morning.  This is a very rare thing considering that we didn't have any major plans until the evening.  Normally Uncas likes to sleep in pretty late.  But when Sammy got up, we all were awake.  As I was letting the dog out, I discovered on the kitchen counter my Valentine's day present.  Uncas had set it out the night before!  So I took it back into bed and opened it up.  I received some emerald earrings that match my emerald necklace.  I love them sooooo much!  I tried to get a picture of them, but it didn't work out too well. 

 

Sammy enjoyed playing with the box and didn't even mind the bow that I stuck around his neck.  But after we took the box away, he started barking at us.

 

  

Uncas and I decided to go out to breakfast since we were up and then we headed to Menards to buy more house stuff.  Uncas did our taxes today (we get a nice refund from Federal) and I ran and took a nap with Sammy.  Tonight we went out to dinner at Maggianos - the food was really, really good, but the service was slow.  We just happened to get Sara who like to avoid our table from some reason.  After dinner we met Josh and Jaron for some bowling.  I actually didn't suck and even managed to break 100 both games!

 

  

 But now I am quite tired and Uncas has gone to bed without me!  I do want to leave you with a couple of pictures that I promised from my last post - the lake in our backyard and me decorating cookies.

 

 

A little Behind

Wow - I didn't realize that I hadn't posted a new note since Monday. Not that much has happened this week, but I did take some pictures that I have been meaning to upload. I am currently at work, so you'll have to check back later tonight for the actual pictures.

Tuesday morning we woke up to a lake in our backyard. With all the warm temperatures (loving it!), the sudden melting and frozen ground left us with lots of water. By the time we got home from work, the lake seemed even deeper. Uncas took some pictures and good thing - by the next morning there wasn't much water left and by that night, it had finally absorbed into the ground. I was pretty worried about it at first, but there doesn't appear to be any water in our basement - thank goodness. Sammy is also happy to have his entire yard back to explore.

An update on the working out in the mornings - I did actually get up three mornings this week (Monday, Tuesday, and Thursday). Wednesday I came into work early, so I skipped that day, and this morning I just wanted a to sleep in a little bit more. I figure 3 days is better than none and next week my goal is 4 days. I might have been a little ambitious to think that I could really get up that early all 5 days right off the bat. But overall I am pretty pleased with the progress.

Last night I made a new cookie recipe. They are ricotta cheese cookies and I decorated them for Valentine's Day. Uncas took a couple of pictures. They are an easy cookie to make and quite tasty, but the recipe yields a million, or so it seemed, so I didn't even decorate all of them. So if you are in the neighborhood, stop on by this weekend for a cookie or two.

Sammy Working Out

I did get up this morning at 6:00 to run/walk on the treadmill.  Once I got out of bed, the rest was a piece of cake.  Sammy got up with me, although he stayed upstairs when I was down in the basement on the treadmill.  After my run/walk, I brought my 5 lb. free weights upstairs to do some arm exercises.  I just left them in the living room and wouldn't you know it, Sammy has discovered something new.  He wants to work out just like Mama!

 

Here is a video of him in the act (sorry for the bad lighting).  Notice how he jumps when I say his name!

Another Winter Weekend

Not really too much to report with our household.  We are in the middle of winter and even though the temperatures have been a little more pleasant this week, like any true Minnesotans, we are longing for the days of spring.  But until spring comes, we are pretty much home-bound.  It was a long week at work and I wasn't feeling the greatest for most of the week.  The result is that I have logged zero hours on the treadmill for February so far.  My plan this week is to get up early every day and run in the morning.  I have a friend who has two children, works full time and is going to school for her PhD.  If she can get up 3 mornings a week to workout, then I figure I really don't have an excuse.  We'll see how this goes.

Uncas was very busy on Saturday putting together three shelving units for our basement.  It's really starting to get organized down there and that feels so good.  Check out his handy work:

 

  

While he was downstairs, I was busy preparing food for that night.  Our friends Josh and Jaron came over for dinner and some Wii.  I made baked ziti, burned some garlic bread, and baked a French Silk pie for dessert.  The guys didn't care for Guitar Hero too much, but we had a blast playing Rabbids and Monkey Balls.  Here Sammy is helping Jaron play Wii.

 

 Today was a lazy day, as Sunday's should be.  We are currently sleeping, watching the Grammys.  The highlight - blink 182.  Of course how else would I end a blog entry, but with a couple of cute Sammy photos.  

Sammy and Mama sharing a moment on Saturday morning in the sun.

Sammy sleeping on daddy's lap after a long day of exploring in the yard.

The Usual

It's been a very quiet week at our household. The weather turned back to sub-zero temperatures which has me planted firmly on the couch, in front of the tv eating pumpkin cake. It's been terrible - no motivation to go on the treadmill at all!

Work has also been very quiet this week and this morning I wasn't having the best start to the day. My co-worker Sally (yes, she has the same nickname as me - we're the Sallys) ran to the coffee shop next door to where we work, to grab us some drinks. She wrote down what I wanted and forgot it at her desk. When she got there, she started "Medium White chocolate . . . oh shoot!" But lucky for her the girl ringing up said "decaf mocha, skim with whip". Yep - that was it! And then the girl making the drink was like - "Oh -it's for her!" They know me by my drink! Usually I am the type of person who likes to try different things and has a hard time deciding on a favorite. However, I have discovered that my favorite drink is that and I have been getting it at least once or twice a week for the past few months. So - does this mean I am officially a "regular"?

A Little Break

I don't know about everyone else, but the warmer weather this weekend was sure a nice break from the sub-zero temperatures. This morning I ran to the grocery store without a jacket (I was wearing a lightweight fleece shirt). It was 28 degrees which was 40 degrees warmer than last weekend. Sammy got to enjoy a lot of time outside this weekend exploring in the yard, digging up who knows what and eating it. Uncas shoveled a little system of paths in our backyard this past week and with the warmer weather, the snow was packed pretty hard, so Sammy actually could walk around most of the yard. I took a few pictures.

I had been craving pumpkin cake/bars with cream cheese frosting for a while now, so I finally made some today. They taste as good as they look!

This weekend was pretty productive around the house. Uncas cleaned out the area in our basement where he is going to put his workbench. Then he washed the walls, primed and painted it. Check out the before and after pictures here. Next he will start building his workbench. While he was busy with that, I went to Target and bought a bunch of clear tubs. We still have boxes in our basement that haven't been unpacked as well as stuff that is just for storage. We want to make the transition from cardboard boxes to clear tubs - all the same size. We also plan to buy some storage shelves for downstairs. Everything is coming along pretty well.

But not all this weekend was work. Last night we went out to dinner and a movie. I can't remember the last time we did that. We saw Slumdog Millionaire and it is a great movie. I had heard all great things before seeing it and it did live up to the hype. A very uplifting movie which I highly recommend.

Well, as usual, my dog is looking for some attention and I need to start dinner and then settle down to watch the Superbowl!