Easter & E’s Birthday

Easter was a low key affair this year. Joe and I declined my mom’s offer to come over for Easter dinner and we didn’t have the kids so we didn’t plan ahead. In fact we ended up running to Dominick’s (since Target was closed) to buy a steak which Joe cooked on the grill. I made mashed potatoes and green beans to go along with it. I made the green beans “Chinese buffet style” which came out pretty good. It was a bit depressing, to be truthful, but I didn’t want to drive an hour to my parents and waste all that gas just for two hours of visiting time. It doesn’t seem worth it when we can’t stay over late which we definitely aren’t able to do on a Sunday when we have work the next day.

The following weekend we celebrated E’s birthday and Joe’s sister came over. K had a band event so it was just E but we had fun playing Dance Party 2 on the Wii with him. I made him brownies and chocolate cupcakes to satisfy his chocolate craving.

Wii redux

What did the past two weekends have in common? We used our Wii more than usual after borrowing some games from the library.

Saturday the 7th Brother #2 came over and we played a game called Let’s Tap. It’s a really fun Guitar Hero like game except you turn the wiimote over, place it on a box, and tap the box to the beat of the trance music. You gain points according to accuracy and the intensity of your tap compared to the size of the note (bigger is a harder tap and smaller is a lighter tap). While playing there’s all sorts of visualizations swirling around in the background which can be distracting, but cool to watch if you’re not the one playing. There’s also a multi-player race where you’re a stick figure who has to navigate an obstacle course in a Tron-like setting. We really enjoyed that one. The games sells for $13 at Amazon so we might buy it.

For dinner we ordered Dominos which I used to abhor but their pizza really has improved lately. They had a deal going – 2 medium 2-topping pizzas for $5.99 each – so I got half a pizza made Hawaiian style (ham and pineapple) which was really good. I like the zesty pizza sauce they use and the Parmesan bites are damn good. I also love placing my order online and being able to dictate which toppings I want on which half of the pizza. They put PizzaHut to shame (although saying that doesn’t really express how much I enjoyed my pizza since PizzaHut sucks).

This past weekend we borrowed Just Dance 2 and Joe, E, and I had a blast “dancing” (if that’s what you call three uncoordinated people with no sense of rhythm) to all the great songs in there. It’s a fun new way to workout, and my arms are sore! It motivated me to break out the Wii Fit board yesterday which has been gathering dust for nearly a year. It was kind enough to remind me that not only did I fail to meet the weight loss goal I had entered a year ago but that I’ve gained weight since then. Ah well, maybe I can dance it off.

Movers

Yesterday Joe, the kids, and I helped Joe’s sister, who just moved back to Illinois after living in Arizona for 12+ years, unpack her moving truck. It took longer than expected (doesn’t it always?), the weather was colder than would have been ideal, and we’re both sore today, but it still wasn’t that bad because we got to spend some time with Joe’s brother and sister as well as his nephew and his nephew’s girlfriend and son. We all had dinner together before everyone went their separate ways which was nice. We’ll probably be seeing his sister a lot more frequently now that she only lives about 40 mins away. In fact we’re inviting her over to celebrate E’s birthday in two weeks so that should be fun. I plan to invite my family as well.

The weekend was rather dull thanks to the cold overcast weather. I’m sure it will be beautiful now that it’s back to work.