Free Pastries & Ice Cream Tomorrow...

  
Tomorrow's gonna be a good day when you can get free ice cream through Ben & Jerry's Cone Day, and a free pastry in the morning at Starbucks with a purchase of a beverage. Enjoy!

I love being a kid

So, last night was very entertaining last night at home. I helped make dinner, put away the dishes, took out the trash, and set the table. Yes, I know, I'm so helpful around the house. We ate grilled salmon with oven roasted potatoes. It was super yummy.

After dinner, I cleaned up the table, and put the leftovers away. My little brother was definitely hyper, so I promised him that if he would leave me alone for 30 minutes, I would have "tea" with him. Of course he asked me what "tea" was, but I told him he couldn't find out unless he left me alone. (Which actually worked.)

Half an hour later, as if on cue, he met me in the kitchen and said he was ready for "tea." And it was a very fun time. When I was little, my other brother and I would take out these small tea cups and fill them with water and sit at the table slurping our "tea" while talking in a British accent. We had a lot of fun doing that.

So my little brother and I had "tea" last night, and it was a hit. He loved it. A couple of times we laughed so hard that I couldn't swallow my "tea" and neither could he. It was definitely fun. After "tea," we played a long game of Uno. While I was putting away the cards, my brother decided it would be funny to tackle me and see how many times he could jump on my back. At first I was not amused at all, but eventually I gave into him, and fought him off, laughing hard and screaming for my mom to make him stop. I felt like a kid again. And let me just tell you, I got a major ab workout fighting him off. I mean, he's only 9, but he's already almost as tall as me. Finally, he stopped and I re-did my ponytail.

In the mean time, our dog had come upstairs to see if there were any food scraps leftover from dinner. I thought I did a pretty good job of cleaning up, but apparently I didn't, because you'll never believe what happened. First, she spied a scrap of salmon leftover on the middle of the table, so while my brother and I watched, she placed both her paws on the table, leaned her face to the side, and licked what she could of it before we told her to stop. But she didn't eat all of it yet. So, my brother had the brilliant idea of pointing to the bit of salmon and telling her to eat it. And this is what she did:

 Of course she jumped onto the table and ate the remaining salmon.

 Then checked all around the table to make sure she got it all.

I was laughing so hard when she literally jumped onto the table. I mean, as you can see, she's a big girl, I mean, she's not a limber cat or anything. She's a huge lug of a dog. And she just jumped up there like it was nothing. I ran upstairs to get my camera so I could document this. I know, my life is so cool. Afterward, she wasn't sure about getting down, so I carried her to the floor, and learned first hand how freakin' heavy she really is. She's gotta be at least 50 pounds. But seriously, who does this? I tried to show my mom the pictures, but she was upset that she climbed onto the table. She didn't really think it was funny. Sheesh... parents are so serious.

What did you do last night?

I'm not obsessed, ok?

Things I'm currently liking alot:

1. Cupcakes. Blame it on Yum Yum's, and Tee & Cakes, which is near my office. I tried their White on White cupcake last night complete with pink sprinkles and it was so good. Therefore, I'm thinking I might need one a day for the rest of this week.

2. Larabars. Now, I'm not into soy, or cliff bars, or anything that tastes like it has protein powder in it. But these ones have always been my favorite. They have good flavors, and I finally got to try their newest one: peanut butter and jelly. I kid you not, when I ate it I felt like I was 5 again. Yum. My other favorites are their cinnamon roll and apple pie.

3. Reading. I just finished Emily Griffin's Love the One You're With last week. Yesterday I finished Dear Neighbor, Drop Dead by Saralee Rosenberg. And today I've started Zora & Nicky, by Claudia Mair Burney, and I want to finish it already. I spent my lunch hour on the couch in our lobby reading, and I only got about 75 pages in. But it's good so far.


What are you currently liking alot or obsessed with?

China Stories

Life is a little better today. At least it's Wednesday and not Tuesday. Ahem, anyways, since I haven't told you any stories about China, I thought today would be a good day to start. I'm going to chronicle my trip by city. I figure that's the easiest way to tell my stories.

The places I visited while I was there were: Dalian, Shanghai, Xi'An, and Beijing. I totally felt like a jetsetter while I was there because we were always moving and doing things and before you knew it, I was off to another city. Oh, and it was interesting to know that while you can take the train to different cities, it's actually cheaper to fly. We flew everywhere, and I didn't mind a bit. Although, that reminds me now that I still need to see if I can get those miles credited to my frequent flyer account.

Dalian is a beautiful city. It's full of young people, and it's by the coast of China, so they have really fresh seafood and beaches. The average age there is 30 and younger, and it's definitely up and coming. My dad's based there for a year. His assignment should be done in December.

At the beach

While we were in Dalian, we tried many different foods, including this fish, and a hot pot restaurant, where the table turns into a pot and one side of the pot is spicy and the other is mild. And you basically drop in the raw food and watch it cook and then use your chopsticks to fish it out and eat it. It was fun.

This was some fish and the sauce tasted like sweet & sour.

Hot Pot time!

Stay tuned for more stories.... I still have tons to share!

I'm somewhat refreshed

After getting 9 hours of sleep last night, I feel much better. Not nearly as exhausted, and no need for a nap today. I can't wait till Monday, because we get it off. It'll be a glorious to have a 3-day weekend.

I meet a potential roommate tonight--wish me luck.

The Amish Friendship bread is coming along. I came into work today to find it puffed up with air, but I guess that's normal. I'm on day two, so all I had to do was "mush the bag." Easy enough.

It was hella windy outside today yet I still managed to go to Sunflower on my lunch hour. I had a hankering for Boars Head Mozzarella, mixed nuts, fresh basil, and some leafy stuff--spinach & romaine lettuce. It certainly was a productive trip.

Tonight I'm hoping to get 10 hrs of sleep--we'll see.

First Bite Boulder

I'm excited for First Bite Boulder. So excited, that I spent some time looking through the menus and ranking them by preference. What are your favorites? Is anyone else going?

1. Trattoria on Pearl--everything sounds good! and it appears we get wine with the meal
2. Bacaro--Pumpkin and sweet potato ravioli with butternut squash, sage, walnut crème, or fettuccine sounds good
3. Black Cat--Farmers cheese gnocchi & chocolate dessert sounds good
4. Zolo Grill--Tortilla soup, porkchop, and pumpkin trio sound good
5. Dolan's--I like that you can get a bigger steak--12oz & good dessert choices--creme brulee or mixed berry crisp

Hopefully M and I will narrow it down and make our reservations!

Food

Recently I was online browsing for some healthy recipes, when I came upon this 'lil nugget of information on Oprah's website.

1. You must eat only what you really enjoy.
2. You must really enjoy everything you eat.

I have to say that those are really simple, but truly helpful. Often times I'm indecisive when it comes to eating. I just eat whatever I packed for lunch or think is the easiest to make. But lately I've been stepping it up a notch. I made shrimp linguine for the first time last month, and made egg salad too, both of which turned out to be a success. And I feel good--good that my recipes turned out, proud of myself that I can actually follow a recipe, and happy that I'm using my money wisely.

Anyways, those two principles have made me stop and take my time before I order or before I think what to cook. And it's been really great to just eat a piece of chocolate because I want one, or eat a bowl of soup, even though it's not cold outside. It's still early, but I'm trying my best to remind myself of these principles, especially when I feel rushed, or am super hungry. Because when I give my body what it really wants, it's truly happy.