Overdue....

This post is overdue...it's mostly about Pacino, because I was home sick 3 days and didn't do much else. And when I did, I forgot the pictures!

I'm not the only one in my house who likes tea, apparently. Pacino drug this out of the mug that was in the sink to the middle of the kitchen floor. Another morning, I woke up to an apple in the hallway full of little bite marks. He also loves to lick green olives, which becomes a point of contention between us, because I don't like sharing my green olives.

He did a lot of sleeping on my lap during my sick days...

He always puts his toys in his food or water dish. Strange.

He was pretty tired of me being around so much. He didn't get to sleep as much as normal, and when he would lay down he would pass out right away. He'd also get mad when I'd start coughing.

These are some crawfish I ate while doing the amazing race in CR on Saturday. They were pretty good--but, anything breaded, fried and dunked in sauce can't be that bad.

Pacino took the toaster oven's spot in the cupboard the other morning...

Somehow, I got made captain of our amazing race team. Super fun day full of eating and drinking and weird challenges. Our team only got 15th place out of 36 teams, but we had a great time. 

This is what happens every time I cook. I have a shoulder pal.

It's not as easy as it looks to walk around with this 9 pound guy on my shoulder and still try to get something accomplished!

Passed out...

One of my brackets ends like this.

And the other one like this. 

You can guess which one I'd prefer. 

Currently, my ISU bracket is doing better than the other. Hopefully, in about 3 hours ISU will have another victory and be moving on to the Sweet 16!

People Who Love to Eat...

I know, I know. Lots of my posts have food. I'm in love with this quote, and it is going to find its way into my kitchen decor soon:

All of my favorite people love to eat! 

Ok, this isn't the greatest picture, but it is the highlight of this blog post. Tonight I made homemade onion rings--well, petals, because I used up a partially cut onion. Super simple and so, so good. So good, that I ate them before I could take a better picture than this! I bought a yellow onion (for the first time in years, because of my mild obsession with red onions) but I had a partial red one that needed used, so I opted for that. I dredged the onion petals in a flour/salt/cayenne pepper mixture, dunked 'em in egg and then panko. Sprayed 'em with olive oil cooking spray and baked at 450 for 10 minutes. Seriously delish. And, while I normally like playing around with sauces until I get it just right--this time, I bought a Miracle Whip Onion Bloom sauce. Perfect. The pizza is far from homemade, but Vito's made me two pizzas last week, since they made the first one wrong. It's finally almost finished. 

I also whipped up these babies tonight. Also, simple: some oatmeal, peanut butter, honey & chocolate chips all mixed up, balled up and chilled. Tasty little sweet treat.

The best part of going to the grocery store (one of my least favorite activities) is seeing what new kinds of tea are out there. Found these. Currently sipping the melon citrus mint, and it isn't disappointing. 

This was my lunch yesterday. (Along with the pizza...)

This was the staple of my lunch today. Still green, as Lindsay pointed out, but slightly healthier. Love the New Bo Market, and can't wait for the CR Farmer's Market this summer!

Also tested out one of my peach honey sticks this morning in my peach tea. Good stuff.

Whew, that's a lot of food.

 

St. Patrick's Day

St. Patrick's Day is a holiday that I don't really understand, but it's a holiday, so why not celebrate?

After church Katie & I braved the cold and went to the SoPaDoPaSo parade. Don't ask me what that stands for, because I don't know. Anyways, it was much colder than we anticipated. But there was some good people watching. Some of us were more prepared for the cold than others (not me--I gave up on winter last week and put away my coats and mittens and such...).

Then after a frigid walk back to the car we went to lunch at Parlor City. Then to NewBo Market to buy some fresh produce and local honey for HALF OFF! Nice. 

We finished the day by drinking hot tea and eating cookie dough at Coffeesmith's. Yum. 

And I finally think I've warmed up, but have the feeling I'm going to have a cold at some point this week...

Oh, Saturday

Well, this happened on Friday night, but Pacino bit my face! Not nice.

Finally, successfully, managed to hang the shelves!

And moved the one in the bathroom.

Tossed a couple of things up there for the time being. A shopping trip should finish that up!

And, I even sewed 2 buttons on to my sweater today. They aren't great, as I've never learned how to sew on a button, but there they are. 

And now, I'm relaxing with the fireplace on, blueberry vanilla tea, and Pinterest. And after that, a book. Wild, wild Saturday night!

Randoms of the Week

Here are a few quick shots from the week:

Pacino re-found his love of water.

Orange Leaf is good anytime. Chocolate mint frozen yogurt? Can't be beat.

Made a pot roast (or, as we like to call it at work: roast beast.)

Pacino likes to oversee kitchen procedures.

Made stir fry with the leftover roast beast. 

Using my new planning sheets--priorities, ya know. In my defense, I did mark a lot of other things off the to-do list today.

Tomorrow=Cyclones vs. Jayhawks rematch. Watch out KU. We got business to settle.

Smart/Idiot

Usually, I think I am a fairly smart person. To prove my intelligence, watch my robot follow a black line, using a light sensor, then stop when it sees green using a color sensor, then pick up the green lego medicine bottle and bring it back to base:

Chances are, you can't do that. 

Keep that in mind.

Now, during the last post, I explained how I won the idiot of the day award by driving to Target, forgetting the coupons, driving back home to get them, only to forget to use them. Duh.

Well, I bought all those shelves, and I've been super eager to hang them up. I'm somewhat handy for a girl, so I thought I could handle it. I borrowed a drill from a coworker, and her husband kind of explained what he thought I should do. I've used a drill on a couple of other occasions--in robotics, and building a shelf, for a couple. But drilling a large hole into the wall is very different, and very nerve-wracking. 

So nerve-wracking, I didn't even hold the shelf up on the wall to see if I liked where it was. 

(This is integral to the ending of the story.)

I tried the screwdriver fast, with nothing but frustration. So I finally gathered up my courage and got out the drill bit. I started with a small one, and finally had to convince myself to move up to the biggest one. I got one of the holes drilled and the plug in, no problem. The second one, however, not so much. It was too small, then to big, then it wouldn't go flush, then when I finally got it somewhat, the hole was too big and the shelf wobbles. And I hate how it looks. Thirty minutes, toasted. And later this week--another hour to put it in a new spot, and patch/paint the huge holes in the wall. 

If you think I'm an idiot now, please refer to the video at the top of this post. 

The good hole (left) and the bad hole (right).

The final product.

The tools. 

Moral of the story: I need a stud finder. In more ways than one. 

Weekend Happenings

Here are some randoms photos from the weekend:

Making a king size bed by yourself is hard enough...then add this guy pouncing around every time the sheets move. 

I got home Friday night to see that Pacino had batted the pipe cleaner out into the hallway. I wonder what the neighbors think of me...

Went to the CC Variety Show. This is the choir singing. 

This is what Target's shelves looked like before I came...

...and after.

I bought these shelves to finish off my last living room wall. Unfortunately, I didn't read they require a drill to hang, so they have to wait until later this week. (Side note, I went to Target specifically to buy these. I also had a coupon. I picked up my friend, got to Target, and realized I forgot the coupons. So I went back home. Then, I bought 3 things at Target that I had coupons for: the shelves, cat litter, and nail polish. Then...here it comes....I forgot to use the coupons. Duh!)

This is the painting I did, also for the living room.

Also of interest this weekend: Stone City dinner, singing karaoke & busting up the dance floor until 1am Saturday morning--then a time change! Duh again. Monday might kick my butt. But it was so worth it. We were having so much fun we didn't even take any pictures!

New family photo!

Here's Pacino and I's latest picture-- aren't we cute?

Snow Day #6?!?!

Yes, you read that right. We came to a consensus at lunch today that we've had 6 snow day. Yikes.

Here's what the day looked like:

Sledding night is always super fun.

Pacino put his mouse in his water dish over night. I guess he feels compelled to use the water dish for something, since clearly he doesn't drink out of it.

I usually gauge the amount of snow by seeing how much of it is piled up on the deck railing. Not exactly scientific, but usually a close estimate.

We went to lunch at Chili's and used this fancy computer at our table to pay. Life is so convenient nowadays.

A snow day wouldn't be complete without a trip to Orange Leaf. Blueberry & chocolate/raspberry yogurt with blueberries, cherries, boba balls & white chocolate chips = heavenly.

And Pacino is hanging out under the vent of the fireplace warming up. 

Back to real life tomorrow.