MilSpouse Friday Fill-in #63

I have had the worst week.  Hopefully this weekend will be better.  But, for now, I leave you with Wife of a Sailor's...

1.  The best part of October was finishing up my first Master's class, and getting an A in it!

2.  The worst part of October was Joel being TDY so much.  Makes me think of the upcoming deployment.

3.  For Halloween, I’ll be Marilyn Monroe a la Diamonds Are a Girls' Best Friend.

4.  I hope that in November will finally bring me a job!

5.  Wifey has posted MilSpouse Secret Santa. I will hopefully be participating.

Is it really almost Christmas?

So, lately I have been seeing Christmas decorations everywhere, and let me just say, I am not excited to see them.  Christmas is never as relaxing as it should be!  In fact, the only non stressful part of Christmas I have found lately comes in the form of the Christmas cards that we make each year. For that, I have Shutterfly to thank. They make it fun and easy to get creative (which I am normally not!) in order to make some personal and beautiful Christmas cards. Last year's were fantastic! We took some of our favorite travel pictures and made a collage on a photo card and added some fun holiday quotes. Bam!  The perfect Christmas card!  They were fantastic, and our friends and family really seemed to enjoy them.  Here are some examples of what I am loving this year.

This is the exact template that we used last year!  I am excited to see it back.  It worked so well for us.  Somehow I am going to have to scan in what we did...

How fun is this?  Please someone I know with kids send this one to me!

Lastly, I think the dogs are getting their own ornament this year.  What a perfect way to remember 2011!

So, anyone know yet what their Christmas cards are going to look like, yet?

Lombardo's St. Louis - A Review

So, I received a coupon from Lombardo's of St. Louis for 20% off of our meal and a free bottle of wine.  Who can pass that up?  Not this girl!  Plus, it is located right next to Union Station, which is on my 101 in The Lou list.  So...game on!

We showed up at 6pm on a Saturday night.  If you do decide to go, make reservations!  We didn't.  Luckily, they had one table left.  Unluckily, it was in the corner of the bar area right next to the telephone.  But, it was our fault, and I was just happy to have a table.

Our waiter was awesome!  I wish I would have gotten his name, but he did an excellent job waiting on us.  The only wine we could with our coupon get was either a Chardonnay or a Cabernet, so since I didn't care for either, Joel and my friend Sarah, who tagged along, got to enjoy it.  They described it as perfectly fine for house wine.  Then we got some yummy house made focaccia bread with cheese, which was actually the only thing I snapped a picture of!  It was pretty delish, actually.

I ordered the Chicken Parmesan.  I was surprised at the $18 price tag, so I was expecting a lot out of the dish.  It came out and was an excellent sized portion.  Perfectly filling for dinner.  The Chicken was fantastic!  Excellently seasoned, with the right amount of cheese, which I remember being mozzarella.  The pasta, well...that left more to be desired.  It was semi-warm, with a below average marinara sauce.  There was nothing wrong with it, per se, but it didn't have a whole lot of flavor.  We had to wait quite a while on our food, which was fine because they were busy, but I expected my food to at least be warm, you know?

I have to give this place a 2.5/5 stars.  The pluses were the awesome waiter, yummy bread, and fantastic chicken.  The minuses were the mediocre pasta sauce, the temperature of the food, the above average prices, and the long, yet understandable, wait for the food.  We had plans afterwards, and since we weren't told the kitchen was behind, we were quite late.  And come on, it was an Italian restaurant.  Shouldn't the sauce be the best thing about the place?

Overall: we were glad we gave it a try, but won't be making it back.

Friday Fill-In!

I am so glad that it is Friday!  Joel was TDY (on temporary duty) until last Sunday, so I am glad to get a full weekend with him.  Hopefully we will be able to knock at least one thing off of our 101 in St. Louis list.  I wish one of those would be heading to the World Series, but $350 for standing room only isn't too enticing.  Oh well, go Cards!

And now on to Wife of a Sailor's delightful...

1. I want to finally be able to obtain meaningful deployment.  The government hiring freeze is due to life in Mid-November, so I am keeping my finger's crossed that it actually does.

2. I have the most wonderful husband.  No really, I do.  We still aren't really syncing the way we normally do, and even though I am stubborn most times sometimes, he really does make the extra effort to show he is thinking about me.

3. I wish that Joel's upcoming deployment would be cancelled.  I am not ready for him to go, and while I never want him to, I wish he could just skip this one.

4. I hope that another GOP candidate would emerge that I could really get behind.  I am not a fan of Obama's, and I really wish that there could be a candidate that excited me again.  One can only hope, right?

5. I wonder how different my life would be right now if I would have stayed in Germany.  We sorta had the opportunity, and as much as I am loving the St. Louis area, I dream about being back overseas.

Hodgepodge...

This has been a super busy time for me.  I never thought, being without a job, that I would say that, but here I am!  We went to Branson, I finished my first Master's class (with an A, no less!), I completed the Illinois Basic Skills test (still awaiting results), and I finished the whirlwind experience of completing a sub packet for my county.  Whew!  I'm not sure how much of a breather I am going to have, because I am still in my other class and will be starting a new one next week.  I am also looking for a chance to volunteer somewhere, and still take care of my pups and hubby.  Oh, and did I mention that I was still looking for a job?

Also, I am finally starting to get into the 2012 presidential race.  I love politics, but have yet to side with a candidate yet.  So, I decided to watch my first GOP debate of the season.  I know I am a moderate, but the GOP debate last night made me sad for humanity. Cut all federal aid? Don't cut a penny from the defense budget? All federal employees are rich and 10% need to lose their jobs? Uhh...I'm not rich and I am still awaiting a placement. And really, enough with the freaking fence already. Worked awesome in Berlin and Israel/Palestine, right? Oh, wait...  Ok, enough with my view...for now, lol.  I will hopefully keep up with the race and have a more well-rounded opinion.  I just need for them to get better and more in touch with reality.  That goes with Obama, too.  I'm not exactly excited about him, either.

101 Things to do in the 'Lou! And other ramblings...

For the first time in my life I have actually been afforded the opportunity to have time on my hands.  Time to study for state exams, work on my classes, clean the house, blog...whatever I want really.  And for some reason, I have never felt lazier in my life.  For example, I have had nothing planned this morning, so I was going to do some cleaning, studying, and walk the dogs.  Know what I have accomplished?  Watching the ever addicting HGTV.  I feel like when I am structured I get more things done.  Now, it is like, well, I have nothing I have to do, so I will do nothing.  I need to snap out of it.  This isn't good for me.  Or my house.

In other news, I have had a busy few weeks in The 'Lou!  I have gone to a Rams Game, the Taste of St. Louse, the Best of Missouri Market and, as it is listed on my 101 list, I have gone to a Cardinals/Cubs game.  I have to say (don't kill me!) that baseball isn't my favorite sport, but going to the game was a blast.  So, I have crossed the following off my list.

#64. The Cards take on the Cubs at Busch Stadium.  Check!

On our way to the game on the metro!

The game at night.

View of Busch Stadium from the arch.

Speaking of the arch, that also means that we have crossed off...

1. The Gateway Arch Check!

And also...

30.  Drive down the River Road and pick Apples at Eckart's Orchard Check!
101. A thin-crust Imo’s deluxe pizza Check! - Although, I wouldn't recommend it.  No hating!