Oh hey my peeps..

Thanks everyone for the comments on my blog: Am I Weird?

I'd just like to note to those who suggested that maybe they want the recipe.  The last thing I want to do is spend my lunch talking about recipes... I just want to eat.  It's a good theory, but it happens when I have leftovers from a restaurant... ok so maybe they want to know where to get good food?  fine.  I get it.  Explain why then, when I eat a lean cuisine, or a muthafuckin' lean pocket it still happens.  I shit you not people.. it happens 90% of the time.  EVERY THING I eat.  ugh, whatever.  I'm weird, I know.  Feels good to vent about it though.

Thanks for listening/reading my very special rants... it means the world to me that you 'normal' people love me that much.

One other question:
If someone sends you an invite to something (via email, evite, facebook, etc.) and you can't make it (for a real reason or maybe because you just don't want to) do you feel obligated to give an excuse (whether real or fake) as to why you won't be there?

Just Thursday... 4.28.11

Outside my window..it's miserable.  It's supposed to be SPRING.

Today I feel..lethargic, but excited

I am thankful..that Steve and I are co-existing without issues 

Tomorrow I am going..to wake up, eat breakfast and drink coffee, go to my grandma's to clean her apartment, then packing for a weekend up North with the girls 

I am wearing..jeans and a Twins shirt (supposed to be going to the Twins game tonight - weather permitting)

I wish..that we could find a reliable painter to come quote some work for us...

This weekend..is going to be amazing - going up to Nisswa with my aunts, female cousins, and my mom... girls weekend!!!  Then #2 niece's first birthday on Sunday.

I am reading..blogs... only blogs these days.

I am working on..meh... this and that

Yesterday I..ate French Toast for dinner - from America's Test Kitchen (it really is the best FT eva!)

I am hoping..for some spring weather for girls weekend

I am hearing..the sound of my bladder about to explode (wonder what that would really sound like...)

I bet you didn't know..that I haven't picked up my camera since Hawaii (except to take some before pictures of the work around the house)

One of my favorite..things to eat is passion fruit - we have 4 on the counter waiting to ripen... I can't wait.

Link up ova here, if ya wanna play too

Am I Weird?

There is this thing that bothers me... like bothers me to the point of wanting to stab somebody.  I wouldn't actually do it, because I often times don't carry my shank with me - but I wish that I did.

When I bring lunch to work, which is most days, it's often times leftovers.  I think leftovers are the bee's knees!  So when I heat up my food and sit at my desk to eat (so that I can play online), I get comments of oh that smells so good, what is it? or boy, that smells good.

First, I don't know what to say when someone says that smells good - why else would I be eating it dummy?  I don't eat food that tastes/smells like shit.

Second, I don't like when people talk about or look at my lunch.  It's my lunch time, and while I may have chosen to sit at my desk and eat it (and we have no walls in my office), I didn't open the lines of communication to talk about what I'm eating.  My Time.  I don't walk up to your desk or into the lunch room and stare at your food inquiring about it...

Third, why do you even want to know?  It's not like you have the same thing.  What's the point in torturing yourself with how amazing my lunch is?  I don't want to tell you.

I know this sounds odd... and I can't explain why it bothers me so much... it just does.

Am I weird?

Summer Swap

Ok, so homie Krysten over at After 'I do' is hosting a Summer Must Haves Swap - what does this mean?  It means that if you sign up you get a partner and you swap your favorite summer must haves - AWESOME!  I've already got some idea floating through my head about what I'll send, but I want to wait to see who my partner is so that maybe I can customize it to where they live.  She has all the rules and requirements listed on the blog, so check it.

So if you're interested in meeting new people and doing something fun and swapping some fun summer items - then head over to Krysten's blog and sign yo ass up, homes!  What's the worst that could happen?

I'll be posting some time in May with what I send and what I received :)

PS - doesn't that ice cream look fantastic?!  yum.

What do you want to see?

Almost a year ago now I posted a blog and unsuccessfully followed through with what people wanted to see.  I did satisfy a few pictures, but very few... I figure living in a new house now I have new scenery so it might be a good time to try this again and hopefully follow through with all of the requests.

Here it is:

My camera will shoot anything you ask for ... certain limitations do apply ... so ask away, what part of my life do you want to see in photo form?  Parts of where I live?  Bits of where I work?  My favorite place to spend a rainy day?  My toothbrush?  The shoes I wore today?  What is on my white board wall right now?  My underwear drawer?  ... you name it, and I'll do my best to oblige.  Be creative!

Feel free to steal the idea for your own blog, if you haven't already!

Zumba - Class 2

If you missed it last week, go here first to see how my first Zumba class went.

For those of you who did read and comment, a HUGE thank you!  For me it's not so much about what other people are thinking about me, it's what I'm thinking and how I feel.  I don't like to not understand things; feelings of frustration make me want to break down and bawl.

So after the big day Sunday of scrubbing the walls of wallpaper glue and not getting a great nights sleep, I was pretty much looking for an excuse to not go to Zumba last night.  I couldn't come up with one, so I got dressed and went.

One of my girlfriends didn't make it because she was under the weather, so it was just 2 of us.  This time I was there with the more experienced dancer friend, which had me feeling a bit intimated.  Not that she would ever judge me based on Zumba, but I still have feelings of living up to her standards (I know, the way I think is retarded).  Last week she tried to teach me this simple foot movement that I just couldn't get... I felt so embarrassed when she took the time to slow it down and I still couldn't get it.

So I get there early this time so I can stretch out and maybe chit-chat with my gf for a few before class starts... we get in a few good minutes of gossip and laughter at a 'friends' expense, and then we make our way out to the gym floor.  Ironically (or not at all ironic, just kind of a fun fact) - this Zumba class takes place in the school where I went for grades 7-8.  Sadly, I don't remember any of my gym classes in these gyms we're in.  I do, however, remember the smell of the school, which has not changed since I went there... 15 years ago.  Isn't it funny how smells can bring back such vivid memories?
I digress.

We do some small little steps that we learned last week as a warm up - easy peasy!  Then she goes into other things we did last week, most of which I nailed last week.  So far, so good!  We then go on to do some other stuff we learned last week and I pretty much got all of it.  The little step that Abbie tried to teach me last week, I actually did it!  Abbie looked over at me and said "You've got it!"  I told her to not watch me because as soon as she looked over I messed it up!

Overall I just took the approach of doing what I understood and simply not worrying about the rest.  When she'd do some foot movement and add arms to it - if my arms didn't get it, I just focused on the feet part.  The rest will come.  Being honest, some of the arm shit she does really doesn't match the beat of the music OR our feet.  So... I'm chalking that up to her being off a beat in the membrane! ;)

She did teach us some new moves - a few easy as pie, a few that took me a minute and a few I still don't get. I'm not worried though, I'll get there, and if I don't... oh well.  I'm not being graded on this.

I feel 100 times better about last nights zumba than the first night.  I still plan to stick with it and hopefully I'll get everything eventually.  The best part was that I actually broke a sweat last night, which felt REALLY good!  I feel a little sore today, hard to say if it's from zumba or from scrubbing the walls..

I'm proud of myself for sticking with it and I'm already thinking about what I'm going to do when these 7 weeks are up... a good hour of working out to someone else's beat is good for me!

Weekend Recap 4/15-17/10

I don't often do weekend recaps, but this was a good one, so... it's worthy.

Last week Monday, I bought Steve a house warming gift and on Thursday we got it put together:

We had some ground beef, so burgers were in order!  They turned out absolutely delicious.  Steve mixed an egg, crackers, chopped onion, and shredded cheese in with the beef before cooking.  YUM.

Burgers were great, Friday night was great, it was good to see boyfriend with his manly grill standing outside and doing his thing, even if he did have to put his winter hat on (Friday was WINDY as hell!!).

Saturday we went up to my dad's house for grilled steak and lobster.  Not only do I love going up to my dad's house because I'm a daddy's girl, but he always cooks us gooooood food too!  I also have a bit of news to share - my dad and his wife (those new or newer around my blog should know that my parents have been divorced for about 11-12 years now) are having a baby.  Quick little back story, as someone my age generally doesn't get younger siblings... my dad is 54 and his wife just turned 36.  So she is of good age for having a child, where as if she were in her 50's... it'd be scary!  So anyhow, I've known this since I've been back from Hawaii, just now deciding to share as it took me a bit to adjust to.  Well, Raquel is starting to show a bit, so it was cute to see that.  There were also a few ultrasound pictures of the little blob.. which... it's not much to talk about at this point.  They are due in October, so .. I'm going to be a big sister in October!

Sunday was a day of work and home improvement!  Sadly, this is now exciting to me.  As you may remember, a couple of weeks ago we took down all the wallpaper in our bedroom - that wall paper had been on there for like 200 years, I'm sure, so there was a lot of glue and a few small areas with paper left.  We bought a chemical to mix with water and we then had to s.c.r.u.b. the shit out of our walls.  Hard work, but so worth it now being able to run your hands up and down the wall and have it be smooth.  I'm not even sure how long it took - a few hours easily.  No pictures because the wall looks no different, it's just ready to be patched up, sanded, primed and painted... AND... we have colors picked out now!!  I'm so excited to have this room finished!
Afterwards, we went to downtown Anoka to grab a bite to eat - we went to Jake and Elwood's BBQ Joint (no website that I could find) - it was pretty tasty!  I got the pulled pork sandwich (I have a new found love for pork since Hawaii) and Steve got a half rack of pork ribs; for sure need to go back and try out a couple other menu items!  We then walked to our new favorite ice cream shop, Two Scoops and got ice cream :)
After dinner we wanted to stop at Home Depot - we had several gift cards totaling over $600!!  Crazy shit, huh?  So, for the past several weeks we've been thinking of things that we absolutely need for the house, not just random stuff we want.  Last night we made the trip to HD and filled up our cart pretty good... leaving us with just over $400 left.  What did we buy?

• A Rake
• A shovel for digging up ugly plants and bushes
• A broom for the garage
• A 100ft hose
• A sprinkler
• 2 motion detecting lights for our garage
• A quart of high gloss paint (for the small portion of wall in the den that did not get white board paint)

Last but not least, we got this beauty:

• A 12 gallon Wet/Dry Vac!  Steve and I clean the shit out of our cars in the summer, so that right there is a good enough reason to need this.  Not to mention all the home projects we want to do, this thing will come in so handy!!  I kind of can't wait to use it.

We still need these things and didn't buy them yesterday because we either want to check craigslist first, it couldn't fit in Steve's car, or we need to do some measuring: Ladder, Lawn Mower, bathroom fan motor, and  bits and pieces for putting in a new toilet (we have the bowl and tank but need the other stuff).

The other joyous part of our night last night was being offered a FREE granite counter top, sink, and faucet for our (pink) bathroom.  You see, we do eventually plan to make that bathroom 100% pink free - so this counter top will help us save $300-$400 when that time comes.

The toilet parts mentioned above are to replace the pink toilet... my mom has a bowl and tank that are brand new, we need a wax ring, flange, and some piping to replace the current stuff.  Our pink toilet is a water hog, it seriously takes 5 minutes to fill back up and it only flushes the toilet paper about 50% of the time.  So that'll likely be going before we do the complete bathroom remodel, because it's necessary.

All in all - we had a pretty awesome and rewarding weekend!  My arms are sore today... and I have the second installment of Zumba tonight... that'll be interesting!

Zumba - Class 1

So on Monday I went to my first Zumba class - and I didn't like it.  I'm all for trying new things these days and I plan to stick with it, but I feel like it's WAY over my head.  Luckily for me, I know how to have fun (or at least act retarded when I'm embarrassed).

I get there, right on time, and see my two girlfriends standing there waving me over.  I run over and stand there rip roaring ready to go.  The instructor is having some music issues, so us girls chat about the awesome news in our lives.  Music issue resolved, let's get started.

She then busts into the fastest explanation of what we're doing I've ever seen... for a moment I questioned if maybe I signed up for an advanced Zumba class.  Everyone else seemed to not question it, so I decided to not be that girl and say "I don't get it".  I stood there moving my feet and arms as fast as they'd move to keep up.  Then she starts in with this ...5-6-7-8, which, to me, is structured dance counts... me?  I'm used to shaking my ass in the club, club dancers don't ...5-6-7-8.  So now I'm really freaking out thinking what the fuck have I gotten myself into...  I still haven't come up with the answer to that.

This chick is moving all fast and she has huge boobs so that is a major distraction (mostly because I'm curious how she is not in pain with all the bouncing - I need to find out what type of sports bra she is wearing).  She's sweating and I've barely broken a sweat... what am I doing wrong here?!  Both of my girlfriends have dance in their backgrounds, one more than the other, but still.. they've both had disciplined dance teaching - my arms move the opposite way of my feet.  I can do most of the stuff she is doing if it's slow because she did slow down a few times to show us exactly what was going on - I rocked it.  Until she turned on the music and sped it up 10 times laster than what she taught.

I left feeling extremely frustrated but trying not to show it because I was there with friends and I didn't want to be a baby - in reality I just wanted to cry.  I cry when I'm frustrated and feel like a dummy.

Like I said, I'm going to go again on Monday - and in my head, at this moment - I plan to stick it out for the 7 weeks that it runs.  I just really hope I catch on to it soon or I learn how to stand there doing jumping jacks while everyone else is doing sexy dancing.

I'll keep ya posted.

Twins Home Opening Weekend

So... after the wedding reception was over we all wanted to hang out longer, because we are awesome people.  Turns out the kegs that were purchased were still flowing!  WAH-HOO!  Unless, of course, you're already bombed and don't really need to drink anymore.  The bar tenders filled up probably 12-14 pitchers of beer and let us take them up to a room with us.  Did we need them?  Nope.  Were we quiet while drinking them?  Nope.  Did we drink them all?  I have no idea.  I'm not even sure what time Steve and I went to bed; it was late/early though.

We had tickets to the Twins game - home opening weekend tickets are always fun games because the crowd is electrifying!  We set the alarm for like 8am, because Duluth is a good 2.5 hours from our house (we left the tickets at home, durr), then the ballpark is another 30ish minutes from the crib.  We snoozed a bit and decided we didn't have to be at the field right at 1:10.  I was a mess; still drunk most likely.  Steve went and sat in the shower for probably 30 minutes.. then I told him he had to drive home because I couldn't even think about it.

We finally got on the road - after picking up some coffee (which I barely touched) and a tasty McDonald's breakfast sammy.  After making several stops along the way we finally made it home, grabbed the tickets, and headed back out to Target Field!  I think we walked in the gates round about 1:30-2:00.  I really didn't want to be around people... being wicked hungover, loud crowds of people are not appealing to me.  First things first... Walk-a-Taco.  This is a new food item at the ballpark; it's a taco you can eat while walking... cone shaped shell with all the taco fixings mixed together inside of it.  Scroll down a bit on this page to see a picture.  Looks good, right?  Steve and I were really excited to try these; we ordered one chicken and one beef:

For me, it left a lot to be desired.  I liked the chicken better than the beef, because you could taste cilantro in it (and I LOVE me some cilantro)... but they mix in some sort of sauce with it and I don't really do taco sauces on my tacos, and I felt like that either ruined it for me or took away the rest of the flavor or something. Maybe I was just hungover and unable to taste.. who knows.  Great picture though, right?!

Twins lost, which, for how I was feeling, was fitting.  A few other pictures from the day:

 cute, huh?

Steve and Ang

Boyfriend came through!  There IS a picture of us from the wedding... and I loves it!

A Weekend Wedding

Friday afternoon Steve and I made the trek up to Duluth, MN for wedding festivities.  Steve's best friend, Jeff, was to be married on Saturday.  Being that Steve was in the wedding, we had to be up there on Friday for rehearsal and the groom's dinner.
On the way to rehearsal we stopped at the PortLand Malt Shoppe - because Steve and I drool (all winter long) at the thought of the malts at this place.  I shit you not... if you're in Duluth, stop and get a malt here.  You will NOT be sorry.  (lucky for us, we've discovered a little Ice Cream shop within walking distance of our new home that has malts: their inspiration?  The PortLand Malt Shoppe!)

Anyhow - Friday night was great - those boys have a fantastic group of friends and it's always a good time when everyone gets together!

Saturday was wedding day.  Steve had to be to the church early, so he got ready and left... I hung out at the hotel because my stomach was bothering me... I got ready at my own pace and then waited for our friend, Brady, to come pick me up.  I looked hot, even though I don't currently have a picture of me in my hotness.  The bride was OMG Beautiful!  The groom had a perma-grin - which is always a fun thing for me to see (as a woman, I find great joy in watching a man on his wedding day).
Between the ceremony and the reception a few of us went to a little bar in Duluth and drank... there were 7 of us and we managed to drink 7 pitchers of beer.  Needless to say, I was tipsy by the time we got to the reception.  The pictures you're about to see?  Some I remember taking, others, not so much.
A few pictures from that night (thanks to Brady and Linnea - I stole your pictures!):

The bride and her ladies:

my handsome boyfriend in a tux :)

 Steph and I

 Brady and I

 Ang, Steph, Brady

  The ladies up on the dance floor (I'm still sore)

 Bride and her AWESOME parents!

 Steph and I again... being silly... 

 Linnea has the BESTEST air guitar EVER.  and she rocked it in her wedding dress!

Congrats to the happy couple: Jeff and Linnea!

Sad though, I have no pictures of Steve and I... and we looked DAMN good too!

Time

I just wanted to take a moment and thank the ladies that commented on my middle of the night weekend ramblings...

Time is really the key, well time and sleep in this case...

Sorry it was kind of a mish-mash of craptastic stuff.  I know it's just one of the adjustments of living with someone else.

Hawaii: Oahu

Believe it?  Believe it!  I've decided to give up on trying to get all my pictures edited before posting...

Once leaving Minneapolis, we had a layover in Denver - being it was 11am, we thought a bloody was in order - hell.. we were on vacations!

So we only had 2 nights on Oahu, for a reason - we wanted to see a few things and then gets to relaxin'!  Our ride to the hotel was interesting, it was rush hour so this dude took us through the ghetto of Honolulu to get us to the hotel zone.  It was quite interesting.

Once at the hotel we ran into some issues, which have since been 'resolved', so it's not worth getting deep into - LONG story short, the hotel didn't have our reservation but we ended up in a room anyways, behind the elevator shaft.  It was NOT the way I wanted to start our trip, but it was the only thing that went wrong, so in retrospect, it wasn't that bad.

So - first I'll tell you about some of the foods we ate- shamefully I didn't take many food pictures, for good reason though, it was too damn good to stop eating and snap a shot!  I cannot believe how fresh the fish is there, it's just BEAUTIFUL!
We got a tip from our shuttle driver about a little gem called Ono Cheesesteak - this shit is seriously off the hook!

We ate breakfast here one day, and ... we ate there, I think 2 other times as well ... that's a lot in 2 days on this island.  I now feel the need to go to Philly, yum!

We also stopped into Señor Frogs - yep, on an island in Hawaii, we went to a Mexican joint - we like us some tequila and guac!  We got both tequila and guac but were also able to try some Hawaiian beer, which was actually great!

We asked our bartender about a sushi place, being in Hawaii we figured it was about time to try some.  He mentions this place called Morimoto's... at first it didn't register with me until he said it again... Morimoto's.  I ask 'like.. the Iron Chef, Morimoto?!  Indeed it was... so I knew we were going there, regardless of price.

 That doesn't even begin to show how truly excited I was to sit and eat in this place!  This place was the first of many places that freshly grate wasabi root for you to enjoy with your sushi.  OH.MY.FUCKING.GOD.  Seriously... I can't even explain what a difference this makes!  The sushi here, was amazing.  Amazing.  I must move on... here's a little video on how to make your own fresh wasabi.

Ok so that was all the food worth talking about.  Our big adventures now:
Day one in Honolulu was solely devoted to Pearl Harbor.  There really isn't much to say about Pearl Harbor - you walk in and get your ticket, while you wait for your time slot, there are a few building/museums you can walk through and some other things to look at.  Obviously, there is also a gift shop.
So we hopped on this ferry and it took us over to the building that is built over the U.S.S. Arizona.  Here are a few pictures from that.

It's really hard to give a feel of what you see and feel through pictures.  I'm glad we went.  It was a lot less busy than I expected as well, which was a nice bonus.

Some other pictures from around Pearl Harbor:

The following day we had big plans to go hit up Diamond Head and hike it up to the top!  We got up early, had some breakfast, and made the decision to walk to diamond head from our hotel, the walk is 2.8 miles to the trailhead.  This later proved to be a mistake - a cheap cab or bus ride would have saved our feet.
This is a picture of Diamond head from Waikiki beach:

part way up... not excited (I was hot and exhausted)

What the trail looks like most of the way up

at the top!  The really awesome photog we asked to take this picture of us did a GREAT job getting Waikiki in the backdrop.  PS the sun was killing my eyes!

Waikiki Beach/Honolulu

Sitting waiting for our bus to take us home.... NO WAY could we walk back!

Afterwards, I had many blisters on my poor feet... IN-BETWEEN my toes!  OOWWWW!

Other shots from around Waikiki/Honolulu:

Up next: Bits and pieces of Maui aka pure heaven!