The Office - Premiere's TONITE!

Friday night, happy hour at Tijuana Joe's to celebrate Jeff's new job! Jeff's one of Matt's co-workers. They decided to do shots named after girls, so we did the "Dirty Girl Scout" and "Red-Headed Slut" shots. This while I'm trying to sip a cultured and fancy bit of tequila. Thank goodness we went home right afterwards!
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Saturday I took Sport to the Red Bandanna for a "Dog Wash for Charity" event. He basically "took one for the team" and had a bath there. He hates baths. And then the money we paid for the bath went towards the AHIMSA House charity. YAY Sport! you did a good deed today!
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Saturday night was girls' night out at TAP. Yummy! We were hanging out with Ruth's sister who just returned from Swaziland and the Peace Corps. She mentioned another Peace Corps buddy was coming, and guess what? It was a girl I hadn't seen in years! Maggie! So we all caught up and had a nice bite to eat. What a small world. I had no idea these girls all knew one another.
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Sunday we went to a friend's house to watch Formula 1 Monza (Italy), and dine on Italian food. Delish!
Sunday afternoon-evening, (after we got Alex hooked on it too), we continued watching Weeds. We got all the way through the last episode of Season 2, and then AHHH! IT was a CLIFFHANGER! We all voted to watch just the first episode of Season 3, so we could actually sleep (even though it was LATE for a Sunday night). But lo and behold, Netflix doesn't have Season 3 on instant play. ARG! So we had to put it at the top of our queue and wait a few days to get it in the mail. NOoooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo!
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Tuesday we had a surprise/impromptu dinner with an old friend (our dear Kymry) who is finally back from Boreway (aka Norway). We dined on scallops in basil pesto sauce and beef marinara sauce for the carnivores in the house, spinach salad, and lots of vino (of course).
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Wednesday, we had another impromptu opportunity to see her again before she left town, so I went over and we did girl's night at her friend's house. YAY for KY! I do hope she settles down into her new job soon, so we can plan visits and all that jazz.
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The OFFICE Premiere's tonight! I'm super excited about this.
AND
Weeds Season 3 has arrived, so it's ON like Donkey-Kong!

Blue Frogs, Broccoli, & Wii

Photo Credit
The Blue Frog Cantina: Last night, Matt & I dragged ourselves downtown for some $1 Tacos, $2 PBR, and a chance to see Kymry one last time before she flies to NYC. Yes, we will see her briefly in NY at the wedding, but this was supposed to be one last time to see her locally. Well, we ended up NOT seeing Kymry, but we did have a nice dinner with Erika & Ben. KY didn't get Erika's email in time to see that we were doing dinner together. So, Erika and Ben met up with her at The Earl last night. I went home to bed. I really did want to see my beloved KY, but not eating dinner until almost 9pm on a weeknight (a week where I am working and have to be awake at 5:15am the next day), was about all I could do. I do love the Taco nights and plan to go back again to eat more! Maybe tonight? LOL.
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Will wonders never cease? My company cafeteria served something super delicious today. I actually loved this recipe SO much, I had to find it online. I was shocked because normally, the food is sub-par. I'm not blaming the staff, it's not their fault we are given low-budget ingredients. But WOW they really made some smashing food out of these options: Broccoli,Cran,Almond Salad (note: just use regular broccoli florets, I don't see the point in buying "special broccoflower" or whatever they are advertising in the recipe there).
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Between all of my social activities, I have been trying to get more exercise. Thus I challenged Matt to a Wii Tennis Match. Yes he beat me twice (again!), but I got very close - we were neck and neck for the 5 sets to the match point - and somehow he pulled it off. Damn! I just realized THAT is why my arm is so sore. ha! I'm getting ready for a "wii-match."

read that last sentance again.

slowly.

there ya go.

KY, Herring, & Spa, Ah-Choo!

Photo Credit for this amazing photo of Kymry, goes to My beloved Husband Matthew Lane of Zazen Photo.
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Kymry's Homecoming Party went off without a hitch on Saturday evening. She had a full spread of Norweigan fare for us to sample. Pickled Herring in Mustard, brown cheese of some sort, blue cheese atop white chocolate, Norweigan Milk Chocolate, Norweigan cookies, Hariboo Candy, etc. The chocolate was fabulous, the brown cheese was weird but it grew on you - tasted like a caramelly/peanut butter cheese. Pair that cheese with chocolate and I'm in love! However, I avoided the pickled herring like the plague. Yech! I am adventurous about most things, but I already had an aversion to anything pickled, and I am just now starting to like SOME mustards, but to add a nasty fish to it?? no way jose! I let the other braver souls at the party try it. They said it was rich, creamy, but strong tasting. I just smiled and said "good job for trying it" but I didn't have any. The cookies were ok, but I don't think I will run to the store for them. The Milk Chocolate was AWESOME! The blue cheese/white chocolate mixture was ok, but not my favorite. Kymry later said that they usually serve a "black cheese" on top the white chocolate, but that she couldn't find that here, so she got the blue cheese instead. It is okay though, people ate it.
Amazingly, this Fergie-look-a-like and one-time Miller Lite fan had actually graduated into Guinness and Boddington's Beer. Matthew & I grinned like proud parents.
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There must have been a good 50 people crammed into Erika & Holly's house and spilling out onto the deck that night. We stood and talked with people for almost 8 hrs. My feet were sore when I got home (even though I had worn MERRILL's!). Talk about a big party. We ran out of beer, we ran out of glasses, but there was plenty of wine and whisky, so the party survived. I started the night with a nice Carmenere, but graduated to Cabernet Sauvignon, and then a Malbec later in the evening. No I didn't drink all night. I actually had wine with dinner around 6pm, then at 8pm switched to water (drinking out of a Mason Jar since there were no glasses left and it was bloody hot outside (the one day all month it was 88 and muggy at NIGHT!!), I had about 6-7 glasses of water, and then got tired of being the only sober one there, so I had 2 more pours of wine afterwards. Matt and I left around 1:30am to hit Taco Cabana's drive thru for some nachos (our typical late night place), and then home to eat it. We somehow ended up watching Live Free or Die Hard while we snarfed down our Nachos, and while Matt went to bed, I continued watching it, unable to stop, and finally went to bed at 4am. ooh yes, I'm a glutton for punishment. Thank Goodness for the "Crystal Light -Hydration" - once again saving me from a hangover. :-D
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Sunday we slept in as late as possible, and then finally roused ourselves in time to throw on some clothes and go to Minsoo's for Formula 1 viewing of the race in Spa, Belgium. Considering this is skilled driver racing, Formula 1 still has a soap-opera-drama-appeal due to all of the interesting things that happen on-track and off-the-track. McLaren's spy Scandal is one off-track incident. Spa is one of the hardest tracks to drive, especially since it started to rain, and the cars are no longer allowed to use traction control. It's hard not to get excited when there is rain, because the likelihood of a crash or near crash increases and that's when the fun begins. This race, Hamilton and Raikonnen were neck and neck for First place towards the last 2 laps. At one point Raikonnen had edged Hamilton off the road, but then Hamilton swung back in and passed him. Shortly after this Raikonnen (who easily had 2nd place) spun out twice and finally crashed into a wall (uninjured, just stupidity). Later, it appeared towards the end, that Hamilton had won! However, just after we watched him do the "podium" and "after-race interview" Minsoo read an article on his iPhone that Hamilton had been penalized for cutting a chicane (the spot where Raikonnen had edged him off-road) and thus slipped to 3rd place putting Massa in 1st. Oh the drama. Hamilton is one of the younger drivers, and thus seemingly hated by the older-more experienced drivers. Several of the guys in our F1 fan group just hate Hamilton, but even THEY had to admit it seemed very unfair that Hamilton wasn't awarded 1st place. He ran off road because he HAD to for safety reasons. Did the F1 association WANT him to hit Raikonnen to stay in the bounds of the track? I mean it just wasn't going to happen. Oh well. Minsoo's living room was in an uproar. I just sat back with the other 2 girls and laughed at the men. Hysterically funny! I go to watch the men get all excitable, I don't particularly get all involved in the races. Although, I love to watch the driver's crash or almost crash when they get those huge wheels too close to one another. ha!
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In other news, I finally went through a bag of clothes given to me by a friend (her neighbor & friend had moved to Maine and left behind some GREAT shoes and sweaters, etc). However, unbeknownst to me, there was CAT HAIR all over the clothes. Also, I had the grave misfortune of opening the bag of clothes in my bedroom, whilst the ceiling fan was on HIGH, thus spreading ALL of the dust/dander/cat hair, all over the room. I am terribly allergic to cats, and have spent much of the weekend SNEEZING in remorse. AH-CHOO! To add insult to injury, the shoes and clothes were both 2-3 sizes too small for my gi-normous self, but I was able to give some to Ms. Kymry & Erika, and also saved a few gems for my sister-in-law. Oh all my dear sweet tiny-skinny friends and family . I really do need to go on a DIET! At least we will be walking all over creation while we are in NYC so maybe I will lose a few pounds on this vacation?