The hubs and I are in Wisconsin! I’ve had so many cheese curds today. The fried ones are the absolute best. I don’t know what else to say other than go to Wisconsin and eat them.
year of fun
HAVE FUN. EVERY DAY. SIMPLE BUT DAUNTING.
Category Archives: Food/Drink Fun
Day 119: Tahitian Vanilla
Now that I work on Mondays, I’m trying to decide if I should switch Guilty Pleasure Monday to Sunday. On one hand, I was busy and barely noticed the headache and tiredness creeping in after taking methotrexate. Also, now that I have weekends free, I don’t want to lose one of those open days. On the other hand, I need to maintain my focus at work and really I normally rest on Sundays (read watch football) anyway.
But I haven’t decided yet so, for now, I will continue the guilty pleasures on Mondays. Today it’s treating myself to these delicious Tahitian Vanilla Caramels from Trader Joes. They come in small packages, several dark chocolate balls with the vanilla caramels inside. Delicious. Perfect for a little pick me up at the end of a busy day.
Day 113: Birthday!
It’s my birthday! And I am quite the lucky girl. Not only did I receive the secret, yet to be revealed, Apple gift but also a new, professional quality, digital camera, a lovely dinner out AND tickets to Book of Mormon. The hubs may have gone a little overboard and I love him for it.
Broadway in Chicago gets national tours and, in the case of major hits like Wicked and Book of Mormon, sit-down productions. Book of Mormon was originally scheduled to be in Chicago December 2012 – February 2013, but has now been extended through September 2013. And most of the performances are sold out.
Winner of the Tony for Best Musical, Book of Mormon is written by the creators of South Park, Trey Parker and Matt Stone, along with Avenue Q writer, Robert Lopez. That should tell you something about the humor in this show. But within all of the crass language and crude (yet hilarious) humor I found a meaningful and hopeful story of faith and goodwill.
The hubs and I were saying on the cab ride home that it is a true musical that pays homage to ones that came before it in sets and choreography as well as music. And it is original! Not a movie adapted for the stage (Legally Blonde, Bring it On, Shrek, Addams Family, Tarzan, etc) nor a jukebox of a famous musician’s songs shoved in to a nonsense story (I’m looking at you Times They Are A-Changin the Bob Dylan musical).
Even though Parker and Stone are famed TV writers, which I’m sure had something to do with how this show got to Broadway, their investment in the art form deserves major props. I’m hopeful that they will continue to do so with their new production company, Important Studios.
Dinner at Lockwood in the Palmer House was lovely, everything excellently prepared. And my relaxing day of talking to my grandmother (it’s also her birthday today), learning to use my new gadgets, and catching up with a friend was super chill. All in all a fun and unforgettable birthday!
Day 108: A Little Socializing
Like the old married couple that we are, the hubs and I rarely go out on a weeknight. If we do, it’s for dinner, never for an after 8pm hang out. But tonight when we got a text at 8:30pm requesting our presence at a near by watering hole, we both responded with gusto! We left our house in the pouring rain and walked a block to the bar for about an hour of relaxed conversation before heading home again.
It was delightful to go out and socialize for just a little bit. And it’s something we never would have even considered doing back when I was not well. It’s small things like this that remind me to appreciate and take advantage of my health now and every day.
Day 106: Smoothies and Resolutions
On New Years Eve the hubs and I made some resolutions, one of which involved smoothies. Since then, we bought a Vitamix and lots of spinach, fruit and yogurt.
This morning, the hubs made two smoothies. One he took to work, the other he left in the fridge for me. While quite good, we decided the recipe might need a little more fruit. I’ve heard the key to an effective smoothie–and by effective I mean one with a lot of vitamins and enough protein to be satisfying–is to have more vegetable than fruit, but enough fruit to make it taste good. We are still finding that balance, so we will see how they taste tomorrow.
Our plan is to make smoothies every night, one for each of us for the next day. At least during the work week and we will see how we feel about it on the weekend. Here’s our current recipe:
4c spinach
1.5c milk
.5c yogurt (we use Chobani Greek for the protein content)
1c berries (we use blue and raspberries)
1 banana
1 orange
A little bit of honey and maybe some nuts.
Blend the spinach and milk first to smooth out the leaves. (After this, the smoothie is Ninja Turtle green) Then add everything else. This is when the smoothie turns brown, so we bought some cute and colorful cups to keep it in.
year of fun 