GREAT Weekend

On Friday, after work, I came home to find I had a lot of mail (Yay mail!)  The first piece was from the government.  Probably important, so I opened it first.  It was my passport and passport card!!! YAY!!!!  Now I can legally make a break for the border!

The next piece of mail was a huge envelope from Clarion University of Pennsylvania.  Did I mention I had applied there for a Liberal Arts degree with a Library Science emphasis?

Well, I got in!!! YAY!!!! SQUEEE!!!  I'll be starting fall semester 2013.  I can't wait to start setting up my schedule.  I'm going to want to take all of the Library Science classes available!!!  Also, slightly weird, I got a certificate of admission.  It's like giving me an award for being able to fill out paperwork.  yay?

Sunday, Sarp and I went to see Les Miserables.

It was SO good!  I had forgotten how much I loved that play.  I cried pretty much the whole movie.  Afterwards we went to 5 guys burgers to grab some lunch.  They had one of those fancy soda machines that will give you and kind of soda you want!!!  AH-MAHZING!  I got a diet caffeine free raspberry coke!  Yum, right?!

Monday was a bit more laid back.  I slept in, watched some shows then met up with Rich after he got done work for dinner.  We had steamed broccoli and chicken:

Rich added some starch to his plate with left over mashed potatoes and bbq sauce:

It was really good!  We cuddled and watched some TV after that, but I was out of there by 7 because Rich had work the next day.

Tuesday, like every other Tuesday, is my chore day.  My cooking chore du jour was pork chops.  A lady at work had recommended spicing it (I used garlic salt and pepper) and then putting butter and onions on top.

Then wrap it in aluminum foil (easy cleanup) and cook at 350 for 30 minutes.

While the finished product doesn't look spectacular, it sure tasted good!

This upcoming Friday is Rich's birthday!  I took off on Saturday so we could go out and celebrate.  Look for pics to follow next week!

Buffets, Hibachi, and Homade Meals

I had a pretty busy schedule this past weekend.  It started on Saturday morning when I met up with LeeAnn for breakfast at the Horshoe Casino Buffet.  It was delish!  I wish my tummy had room for one of everything.  I mean, EVERYTHING I tried was SO super yum!

I had to work after that, but had a couple of hours to kill before work.  Turns out the place I work at has a cot.  I slept for a couple of hours and then went to work bright eyed and bushy tailed.  **No worries,  I used my coat instead of the pillows**

Sunday was Double Date Night with Mitch and Dom, and Rich and I.  We all met up at Hibachi in Fairview Park.  It was quite the show!  I was so enraptured that I forgot to take pictures :(  Both of the boys, Dom and Rich, managed to catch shrimp in their mouth tossed by the chef!  Not only did Rich pay for dinner (<3) but he also generously tipped our chef!  Such a sweetheart!  Afterwards Mitch and Dom had to get home, but Rich and I made Sundaes and watched football.

Monday I was super unproductive until about 7 pm, when I went over Mitch and Dom's to watch Dr. Strangelove.

It was a lot better than I was expecting.  Did you know it has a young (very young) James Earl Jones in it?!!  There was a bit too many planes for my liking, but the story was pretty good.  Here's a picture of the first scene:

While I was there I asked Mitch if I could use the blanket on the couch I was sitting on.  She said yes and then said she had warmer blankets.  I said I was fine, but she kept pushing it.  "Stop" I laughed "you are a blanket pusher!!", then Dom got a look on his face and slowly picked up a blanket and threw it on me.  "BLANKET RAPE" I yelled!  Dom then pointed out "It's not rape if you like it".  Touche sir.  This is me with my 2 blankets:

 Tuesday was a really bad day to be out, so I stayed in and did "indoor chores".  I did laundry and dishes and straightened the condo.  Then it was time to cook.  My cooking project of the day was roasting a chicken.  The package said that there was a neck and giblets included.  I pulled out the giblets  but couldn't find the neck.  I did NOT want to cook a chicken neck along with my chicken, so I called home to see if my parents knew where the errant chicken neck might be.

Mom and dad had me check the neck area, nothing, then check inside the chicken.  I had done this already, but double checked, still no neck although I did find an errant kidney (ewww).  Dad finally said to open the giblet bag and see if it was in there.  EWWW, I did not want to see giblets, but, he finally reminded me I was an adult and giblets wouldn't hurt me (other than offending my sensibilities!)  Turns out Giant Eagle puts their chicken necks in the giblets bag.

Finally it was time for cooking!  I rinsed off the chicken then rubbed it with garlic salt, pepper and a little paprika, then it was ready for the oven:

2 hours and one amazing smelling condo later I had this:

The skin was crispy and the meat was juicy, tender and falling off of the bone (see leg bone).  After it cooled down I pulled all of the meat off of the bones and had a huge container full of meat (it was a 6.55 lb chicken):

What should be my next cooking project?  Maybe a roast?  Oh, I'm trying Atkins, once again, so any cooking projects for the next little bit will have to be meat/low carb veggie related.  Wish me luck!

2 weeks, 1 blog

I forgot to blog last week, so you get 2 weeks in 1 blog!!  Lets start with 2 weeks ago.  2 weeks go started off wonderfully.  I met up with Rich and we went to china renascence for dinner.  Being the chivalrous guy that he his, he paid for dinner, which was super yum!

The next day Rich had work so I made him a card and left it on his door as a fun little surprise when he got home:

Then it was off to more mundane chores like getting gas (it was almost under 3 dollars!!!)

And putting in an application for a passport.  It's all done, now I just need to wait 4-8 weeks!

The next weekend (or, last weekend) was more eventful.  On Monday I went over Rich's house for dinner.  He made pork chops and I made cheesy mashed cauliflower.  I washed my hands before handling food, and didn't see a towel so I wiped my hands on Rich, but also kissed him so he didn't realize what I was doing until it was too late lol.  Thank goodness he was a good sport about it:

Dinner was SO delish, I was half done before I remembered to take a picture!

Yesterday, Tuesday, was my chores day again.  I did laundry and lots of cooking.  I cooked up some acorn squash (it was edible!  Quite the accomplishment!):

 and then roasted the seeds:

Turns out if you leave the seeds in too long they start popping and exploding and get ALL OVER THE OVEN!!!

It was one of those "where do I even start" problems.  Sigh.  Note to self, no more roasting acorn squash seeds.

I'm introducing Rich to my friends next weekend.  I'm excited!  Hopefully they'll love him as much as I do.  I imagine they'll love him...he's basically me in boy form.

Oven pancakes, Ihop, Thrift stores, batman and HAPPY NEW YEAR 2013!!

The weekend after Christmas I met up with Mitch, Dom and KW.  Since I had been traveling to Utah, Vegas and PA I hadn't seen my friends for almost a month, so this was long over due!  Mitch, grudgingly took pictures in front of KW's Christmas tree with me:

Look!  A rare Mitch hug!!  I got me a Michelle hug!!!!

I was so sad when it was over.  Just as quick as a Mitch hug happens, it is over:

Dom and KW refused to take pictures with us, so, Mitch used her sneaky Mitch skills to steal pictures:

I tried to make oven pancakes for my 3 friends, but they were so bad they were literally inedible...So sad.  No pictures of this inedible monstrosity because I was worried it would break the camera.  Instead we decided to go to Ihop:

On our way home we hit up the new Thrift Store (Volunteers of America?).  Mitch and dom perused the coats while I took pictures without them knowing (creepy?):

And then KW got me the BEST WALLET EVER!!  My old wallet was literally falling a part.  I mean, pieces were falling off on a regular basis.  I had owned that walled for almost 15 years, so I was sad to part with it, but I'm ready to start a new relationship with my new wallet.  Here's me saying goodbye to my old wallet (on the left) and hello to my new wallet on the right:

We then went back to KW house to watch The new batman movie (Dark Knight Rises??)  It was SO LONG!  I remember at one point Dom said "aaaand this is only about the halfway point of the movie).  WHAT?!  I THOUGHT IT WAS ALMOST OVER!!!  Plus there was this on Bane henchman who looked super familiar, but I couldn't figure out what he was from!!!  WHAT WAS HE FROM?!

The next day was New Years Eve.  I met up with my new boyfriend Rich.  He took me out to Brio for a fancy dinner, which he paid for like the gentleman that he is!

Then we went back to his place and watched some movies, and once we had digested Brio, I tried making Rich Oven Pancakes.  I had figured out my mistake with Mitch, Dom and Ken, so these turned out pretty good!  Finally 2013 rolled around.  HAPPY NEW YEAR!!!!