May 2014 – Not Content to Crawl

Memorial Day Weekend

Posted onMay 26, 2014June 6, 2014

Another fantastic weekend is over. It never lasts long enough!

We ended up making two trips to the mall within two days, as well as Bed Bath Beyond and IKEA, looking for a new mattress and some nice bathroom rugs and came up empty-handed on the mattress count. There’s just too many options and based on all the reviews I’ve read, none of them are fool-proof. I’m not even entirely convinced we need a whole new mattress as ours is only about seven years old. It has individually wrapped coils with a pillow-top so it cannot be flipped and it’s been steadily getting more and more uncomfortable. We might be fine getting a decent memory foam topper for it. I found one with excellent reviews on Amazon for only $130. If it works, we just saved well over $1000 since the two mattresses we were considering, a memory foam from Sears, or a Sleep Number Bed w/ memory foam from QVC, were $1500 & $2250 respectively. If not, we wasted only $130. At this point it seems worth the gamble.

As for the bathroom rugs, we decided to redo the master bath and chose matching towels, rugs, and a shower curtain from Target two weeks ago. We decided to go with something bright and settled on a lime green (technically guacamole according to the tags). Once we got everything home, however, I was disappointed. The towels are thin yet shed a ton, and the rugs weren’t nearly as thick as the ones we had for the past decade. We couldn’t take the towels back since they had been washed, but I ended up returning the rugs (and a really old Chefmate tea kettle after learning it had been recalled).

We hit a bunch of stores over the weekend looking for similar-colored rugs to no avail. Why is it that stores offer a ton of different towel colors but hardly any matching rugs? So annoying! Kohls had memory foam bath rugs on sale so I bought one, went back to Target and repurchased the rugs I had returned (which were now on sale, huzzah!), and put the memory foam rug underneath the rug in front of the sink so it’s more comfortable. Not the classiest solution, particularly because the memory foam rug is smaller than the Target one, but there wasn’t much choice.

We also decided that after thirteen years together we’d buy our first toaster. We’ve always used a toaster oven but it takes forever to make decent toast so we picked up a toaster at Target today. I’m looking forward to trying it out next weekend (which is the next time we plan on making toast).

In-between all the shopping we visited my family on Sunday with E in tow. We grilled burgers and hot dogs and celebrated Memorial Day one day early. We also played a lot of Taboo since E is addicted to it. I don’t blame him, it’s a real fun game!

Reading

Posted onMay 23, 2014

I’ve always been a voracious reader probably because as the eldest of three kids, my parents spent more time reading to me than my brothers. We owned a decent amount of books plus we visited our local library weekly. As a result I’ve always loved libraries and books. But as the internet came to be, I found I was reading less and less. Then came the Kindle, which, don’t get me wrong, I love. But the problem with the Kindle is that most of the free books I find online are not my taste and borrowing a digital book from the library is a lot more frustrating that you’d think because there are never copies available of the titles I am interested in.

There are books that have been sitting on my Goodreads wish list for awhile and I wanted to read something, anything, that I could lose myself in. And all the free Kindle books were just not doing it for me. I’d start a new book only to lose interest within the first few chapters. This literally happened five times in a row.

Well, last week I finally got fed up and went to the library to check out real books. Our town’s library, while bigger than the next town over, hardly had any of the books on my wish list, so I went to the one further away. I like that library better anyway. They have a very relaxing place to sit and read that has a cafe feel to it. I spent over an hour reading magazines before going home with a pile of materials.

Today I went back to that library to return some of the items which only had a 7-day loan period and ended up staying to read magazines for almost two hours. It was so relaxing; I could see this becoming a Friday morning ritual for me. Oh, and I’ve already read an entire book and am halfway through a second one. For now my Kindle is going to be gathering dust I suppose.

Facebook vs Twitter

Posted onMay 23, 2014

This article cracks me up, although not as much as the Facebook haters in the comments.

The article got me thinking about a topic I’ve been mulling over writing about. I don’t want to offend any of my readers with differing opinions, but I love Facebook and I just tolerate Twitter. There, I said it.

I know it’s super trendy right now to hate on Facebook, or delete one’s profile altogether, and hang out on Twitter instead, but I just don’t get it. I can’t have a real dialog with someone on Twitter and as such I don’t find tweeting as fulfilling socially. I check Twitter daily, but mostly to keep an eye on breaking news and local events. Honestly, I wouldn’t be devastated if Twitter went away.

Facebook, on the other hand, is where I live and breathe. I know what my friends and family are up to, can read interesting articles they share, exchange ideas or just reminisce. I can showcase my photos and chat with people who, without Facebook, I probably wouldn’t be in contact with at all. So it irks me a bit when people go on and on about how Facebook is a waste of time and Twitter is so much better. It’s not. At least not in my world. But maybe in yours. And that’s cool, but I think there’s room for a few social networks without it turning into a mac vs pc debate.

Oh, and there’s still Google+ out there too, which I really don’t mind much, but tend not to use since most of my social circle is on Facebook.

Pizza, Lilacs, and Tulips

Posted onMay 21, 2014

Friday we decided to use a gift certificate to get a yummy large deep dish pizza from Lou Malnati’s. I thought I had good pizza in college when I discovered Gino’s East. Wrong. Then in my early twenties I thought Giordano’s had the deep dish pizza of my dreams. Wrong again. It turns out Lou Malnati’s deep dish is sent straight from heaven. And during the holidays they offer incentives to purchase a gift card as they give you free money. Delicious pizza is great but delicious free pizza is even better. We bought a $100 gift card and in exchange got a free $25 gift certificate good until the end of June. But it’s gone, gone, gone because while their deep dish pizza is awesome, it’s not cheap. A large deep dish pizza with half sausage and butter crust is around $20 plus some because we order an extra helping of their delicious chunky tomato sauce on the side. This would very likely be my preferred last meal if I had to choose one. But I digress. If you’ve never had Lou’s, what the heck are you waiting for?

On Saturday we took E to see Godzilla. Loved it! I especially enjoyed the twist on how Godzilla was portrayed. I’ll say no more so as not to spoil it for anyone. We also watched two other movies over the weekend – Jack Ryan, Shadow Recruit (2 stars) and Robocop (4 stars).

On Sunday we went a little nuts at Target and spent $113.25 on groceries. Well, that’s the value of the groceries we bought. See, they had a spend $50 get $10 off deal going so we strategized and split our purchases up so we could use two coupons. With all the other coupons, Cartwheel discounts, and deals (including the $15 in free gift cards we received), our true out of pocket expense was more like $65. Now our freezer and pantry is full full full, just the way I like it (mostly; sometimes all the stuff makes me a bit anxious). We loaded up on Skinny Cow ice cream since it was a steal and makes for a nice portion-controlled snack (see: fewer calories than a bowl of ice cream).

After dropping off all our goodies at home and putting away the perishables, we packed a lunch and set out for Lilacia Park in Lombard. This time of year is the only time we visit, and for good reason – it is chuck full of sweet-smelling lilac trees and bushes. It was crowded to say the least. It was a beautiful day to enjoy nature and the intoxicating smells of the lilacs. And while that is what the park is known for, I was more excited by the various tulips on display. I’ve never seen so many and so many different shapes and colors. It was an awesome way to spend a Sunday afternoon.

The rest of the weekend consisted of cleaning the house and cooking good food including this stuffed shells recipe I plan on adding to our regular rotation. I also baked some pumpkin bars that my SIL gave me when she moved out and was clearing out her pantry with the intention of pawning them off on my coworkers since I’m not a fan of pumpkin stuff. I ended up making homemade cream cheese frosting for them that came out amazing. Joe and I loved the combo so there will be no sharing after all, haha!

Mother’s Day & Beyond

Posted onMay 17, 20141 Comment

Last Sunday (Mother’s Day) we went to the Morton Arboretum and Cantigny Park & Gardens. We ate breakfast at the arboretum where a cute and fearless red-winged blackbird pestered us for food. I would have loved to get a picture but it was the one time I left my phone & camera in the car! We spent about two hours driving and walking around the arboretum because the weather was so nice.

We went to Cantigny afterwards because we hadn’t been there in years. Unfortunately, admission is no longer free with our arboretum membership so we had to pay $5. It was ok, but very crowded by that time (after noon), so I’m sure it will be awhile before we make a return trip.

On Monday I had lunch with a gentleman who was a temporary manager at my employer last year when my boss quit a week after I started. He helped out until they hired my current manager. He’s in his 60’s and really nice. It probably seems odd to many that I’d be having lunch with an “old man”, but we actually have a lot in common. He’s retired and does all the cooking and cleaning while his wife still works and he’s also into gardening and watches many of the same shows I do so the conversation flowed freely. I guess sometimes I get along better with people older than I am. One of my closer friends is in her 60’s also, and one of the women at our most recent game night is in her 50’s. I guess I just can’t relate to younger people as well sometimes.