Friday Letters...

Dear Portland...I'll be visiting you soon, end even though my husband told me it would be cooler with less humidity, I see the number "104" as the high forecasted for Tuesday.  Not cool, Portland

Dear 1980s...Seriously, I think I should have had these years in the 80s.  Sure, I was born in the 80s, but I didn't live through the 80s.  My concert line-up this summer includes Richard Marx, Kenny Loggins, and New Kids on the Block.  Clearly I was meant to be an 80s girl.

 

Dear NFL season...I'm so excited for you to start!  We got DirectTV just so I could get the NFL Sunday ticket.  This season is going to be Epic.

Dear running capability...umm, where have you been?  Running has been slow going lately, and I am struggling much more as of late to get through a run.  This also applies to you, motivation to run.

Dear weight...please, please go away.  At least a few pounds of you.  Pretty, pretty please?

 Dear Saturday...I am coming for you.  Watch out!

Weekend Update

So, it's becoming more and more common for me to do these updates on Tuesday versus Monday.  I tell myself I'm going to knock it out before work on Monday, but I never do.  Blogger problems...am I right?

Anyways, this weekend was a good , albeit a quick one.  I started out the weekend seeing a throwback favorite in concert...Richard Marx!  The man is still insanely talented, and pretty hilarious to boot, so it was a great experience.  It was at a local casino in St. Louis, the River City Casino, and Joel and I had never been before.  We went to the buffet for dinner (shocker...he and his family are all about the buffets), played about $5 in the penny slots, and went to see the show.  Afterwards, I even got a head shot with his autograph.  It was a fabulous night!!

The casino.

Apparently I eat like a child at buffets.

Joel's loot.

The best part of buffets...the dessert!

Us waiting for the show to start.

The man himself.

Fun graphics.

My heart be still...he rocked it!

The rest of the weekend was fairly uneventful.  The closet in our spare bedroom that holds our random stuff (coats, miscellaneous military uniform items, dresses, etc.) came crashing down due to the previous owners of our house not caring when they installed it.  It was drilled straight into the drywall.  So, we decided to re-do my closet (the smallest walk-in in the world) and then put my old closet stuff into the spare room.  Joel did a great job, and it was nice to re-vamp my closet.  It desperately needed a makeover.

The before.

The solution,

Joel's handiwork.

All done!

A tie rack for my tank tops...brilliant idea.

Then we spent the remainder of the evening doing a puzzle (what are we...80?) and catching up on the DVR.  Obviously, Pugsley was bored with this.

I am super excited for this week to come to a close already.  We have a musical and a concert this weekend, and then we jet off to Portland, OR to visit with Joel's family.  This is only my second time going, so if anyone has any must-sees that they could recommend, that'd be great!

Choose to be happy.

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I think I am going to take this advice today.  Even though lately I have been having professional, physical, and emotional struggles, I am going to choose to forget about the things that I can not control.  At least for today, I will choose to be happy.

Grumpy Cat's Cousin

My cat Jäger, affectionately known as "Jägy Kitty," desperately needed a bath yesterday.  For those who don't know, my cat actually loves water.  Whenever I take a bath, he lays on the edge of the tub and dips his tail in the water.  If Joel or I shower, he will jump in when we are done and lay around in the wetness  Despite this, he still looks pretty pathetic when he gets a bath.  As someone on my Facebook pointed out, he kind of resembles a long lost cousin of Grumpy Cat.  We shall call now him, "Soggy Kitty."  See for yourself!
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Weekend Recap

I can't believe it's Monday already!  Do I sound like a broken record here?  This weekend went by way too fast.  Sometimes I wish I could have nothing planned during the weekend so it wouldn't just rush by, but there's also something so satisfying about having a productive weekend.  It's a catch 22, I suppose.

Like I spoke about earlier in the week, yesterday a good friend and I participated in St. Louis's Caliente for the Cure, which was put on by the Susan G. Komen Foundation.  Over 600 ladies (and a few men) showed up and helped raise nearly $42,000 for breast cancer research.  We had a blast shaking our booties for two hours of Zumba.  Sweating for a good cause...what could be better?

Picture from last year.

Happy ladies!

Me and my friend pre-workout.

On Saturday, it was pretty much and errand kind of day.  Joel and I ran around getting the finishing touches to the new bathroom (more on that later), and doing the typical boring Saturday stuff. We are switching to Direct TV next week, so we spent most of Saturday night catching up with our shows on our DVR.  I am so excited for this year's football season because we have the NFL Sunday Ticket now.  Holla!

Sunday was church, which was long overdue.  For some reason or another, things have been popping up, and we haven't made it as much of a priority as we should have.  I was really glad that we went to Mass, and even though the homily wasn't my favorite, it was really good for my soul to be back.

After Mass, we went to see Man of Steel with my friend and her husband.  I loved Henry Cavill when he was in The Tudors, and was happy that I wasn't  disappointed with his Superman role.  I've never been much of a Superman fan (really..no one can tell who he is because of those glasses?!) or DC Comics (more of a marvel fan), but I was pretty impressed with the acting and special effects.  And the Henry eye candy, of course.

After that we went out for Mexican, which was just ok, and hurried home to get ready for the new season of True Blood.  I don't know if it was the disappointment at not having a new Game of Thrones or what, but this episode didn't excite me.  Even the season preview was just kind of blah.  I've read the first 7 books of the series, and they were so good, but it seems like they are following along with the books less and less.  We'll see.  They haven'y lost me as a viewer, yet.

Happy Monday, everyone!

How you know it's going to be an awesome Friday...

1.  My boss took the day off today, and so I scored his reserved parking space instead of parking all the way back behind the building.  Score!

2.  When I woke up and actually felt rested.  Hasn't happened in a while.

3.  Knowing that me and one of my best friends in the area is going to take a Friday night Zumba class in honor of Susan G. Komen.  Supporting a great cause, cool swag, and burning of some much needed calories. Arriba!

4.  Finally getting ready in my re-done bathroom.  It still doesn't have all of the fixtures, etc. up...but it's finally functional.

5.  Getting excited about heading to Portland next month.  Even though that's where Joel is from, I've never really gotten to explore the city of Portland.  I'm not very cool, but I think it'll still be fun.

Random Thursday...

1.  It has been hotter than Hades around here!  It was 95 yesterday and super humid.  I know it's June and that the Midwest has humid summers, but how am I supposed to get anything done that way.  It makes running absolutely miserable, and I can't enjoy the open air.

2.  The bathroom is almost done.  We still need to put up the shower curtain, towel rack, etc...but, the end is near..  Here's a peek at the progress so far.

3.  I'm not sure if the Susan G. Komen festivities kick off everywhere this weekend.  But, here in St. Louis we are ready to roll!  Tonight is Dine Out for the Cure, in which participating restaurants will be donating a portion of their proceeds to the Foundation.  Tomorrow is Caliente for the Cure, which is a Zumbathon, and tomorrow is the 5K.  Fun fact - St. Louis has the largest Komen Race for the Cure in the world.  I did it last year, and the sheer number of people made it amazing.  This year I'll be doing the Dining out and Caliente for the Cure. 

A view of the race.

Our team last year.

4.  I love concert season!  This month alone I've got two concerts and a show to see.  We are seeing Richard Marx (total 90s flashback!), I'm going to see NKOTB, Boyz II Men, and 98 Degrees with a friend, and we'll see Pirates of Penzance at the Opera House.  Shakespeare in the Park ends this weekend, so we may also check out Twelfth Night.

5.  I know I'm not old old, but man...weight loss this time around is tough.  I felt like it was easy to shed it off last year, but I am having a much harder go at it this year.  And I don't stand up often enough for myself when friends or Joel want to go out to eat somewhere with no healthy options (like Five Guys).  Plus, I find I use way too many excuses to not work out, when I just need to get my butt up and do it, a la Nike.

Excuse the naughty word.

A Taste of Purus

Have you ever gone to a wine or beer tasting?  Those are pretty common, right?  Joel and I had the great opportunity to do many wine tastings both here and abroad.  But, we recently experienced a new kind of tasting that I never really knew happened.  It was a vodka tasting.  Now, Joel and I aren't alcoholics or anything (pinky swear promise), we love the idea of a different kind of date night, and thought that this might be a fun experience.

One of our favorite places to eat at in the Metro East is a place called The Wine Tap.  It's a cute little restaurant with plenty of al fresco dining, flatbread pizzas (among other things), and a fantastic wine selection.  They often hold wine tastings from local vineyards, but they decided to do a vodka tasting with the makers of Purus Vodka.  I had never heard of them before (they're kind of new), so we thought...why not?  First up: the food of The Wine Tap.

We started off with an appetizer of Foccacia Bread and Olive oil.  They cook the broad over an open flame, and pair it with EVOO and spices.  It's really amazing.  I could get this every time we go (and I usually do).  We also got one of my favorite flatbreads, called "The Rob," which has sausage, bacon, and mozzarella.  It is superb.  Seriously.  The bacon is so smoky and tasty, and the sausage has just enough kick to make it super tasty.  As you can see from the picture below, we dug in before I remembered to take a picture.  Whoops!

Delicious Carb Overload.

The Rob: A little slice of heaven in your mouth.

Then we settled in for the vodka tasting.  They talked about how they got started, how vodka is made, and talked about the different ways you can use vodka at parties, for cooking, etc.  It was really informative.  We sampled just plain vodka, which was actually fairly smooth, and then we tried different infused vodkas.  The first one was strawberry pineapple, and it was really yummy.  It was just "one the rocks" (they all were),and though I don't normally drink vodka this way, it really could be a stand alone drink.

The second one was infused with peppers.  This really wasn't something I was interested in, but Joel really liked it.  They said that it would go well with Bloody Mary's, and while others ordered one that way (and seemed to enjoy it), I'm not much of a fan.  Moving on.

The last tasting was infused with skittles.  Yes, you read that right.  Skittles.  It was a little too sweet for my taste, but I think if you put it in some kind of juice that it would really flavor it up.

It really was a fun event to go to.  Drinking straight vodka is no joke, though, so make sure if you go that you have a sober companion to drive everyone back.  Although we didn't buy any of the vodka, we found out that a couple of our favorite St. Louis eateries carry it, and we wouldn't mind adding it to our menu when we're out. 

Weekend Happenings...

How does a three day weekend go by so quickly?  When you're working on the weekend, that's how.  And no, not at the job that pays me.  The fun job of being a homeowner.  We finally got started on our bathroom remodel, and worked pretty much all weekend on it.  While I think it will look fantastic, remodeling is seriously no joke.  We probably have another weekend to go until it's complete, but here's some inside details on the progress.

Before the Remodel begins...

At the end of day 1...

The end of day 2...

The end of day 3...

So, as you can see from the first to the last picture, we got rid of that hideous green color.  I have no idea why the previous homeowners thought that was a good color for the bathroom.  We also took out the one piece cultured marble slab and tiled the wall behind the bathtub.  We will be adding that tile to the front of the tub, as well.  The tile floor has been ripped out, and we are putting in a new wood grain tile.  We are keeping the cabinet and adding new hardware and a new countertop, replacing the lights above the mirror, and adding a new, quieter fan with a light.  We still have a ways to go, but I'm already happy (and exhausted) with the progress that has been made.

Link up here!