Fun & Games – Page 2 – Not Content to Crawl

Ugh, I’m 46

Posted onJanuary 11, 2022

Why does 46 feel so much older than 45?

In any case, we didn’t do much for my birthday because it was so cold outside! I believe it was around 12 degrees on my actual birthday (Friday, 01/07). Joe was at work but surprised me by coming home early with flowers and dark chocolate covered graham crackers from Starbucks.

I’ve been hinting for years I’d like some either in my Christmas stocking or my birthday and he remembered! The kicker is they don’t taste like they used to. Figures! I will eat them, because they are still ok, but I won’t be asking for them again.

We placed a curbside order for Red Robin that night so I could get my free birthday burger. Did you know you can request extra fries for free? Well, I did, and we ended up with waaaay too many fries. I have a whole container of them still in the fridge! They reheat pretty nicely in the air fryer, so I heat up a few here and there but I don’t think I will be doing that again. Not very healthy!

I opened my gifts which were the Sofi Tukker t-shirt I’ve been wanting and some Brooklyn Nine-Nine stickers Joe thought I would like (which I do).

I’m going to make some of the stickers into magnets for the fridge.

As for the t-shirt, I am pretty disappointed in the quality for the price. It’s 100% cotton so it’s not exactly soft. Reminds me of the old school concert tees from the 90’s. Nowadays the best shirts are a poly-cotton blend and are much more comfortable. Considering I recently got such a shirt with a custom print on it for $27 (which includes shipping), the $40 plus shipping SF charges is ridiculous. I wonder if there’s a way to contact them and suggest they change t-shirt providers. If a small YouTuber can do it, I’m sure they can.

Speaking of, here’s the $27 t-shirt in question:

It’s so comfy! I had to get it after becoming addicted to Little Debbie Christmas Tree cakes last year. The YouTuber I watch created the shirt for her merch shop and I’m very happy with it.

I did layer a long-sleeved white shirt under the Sofi Tukker one so I could wear it, and that helped. The only other issue is how wide the sleeves are so they look a little silly with the long sleeves underneath. *sigh*

Saturday (01/08) we did a late lunch with a pickup from a local place called Anyway’s and shared their meatloaf and pot roast along with an order of their amazing Italian Beef eggrolls. We had plenty leftover for a second lunch the following day.

Saturday night we played Sorry! Sliders and Yahtzee with A Night At The Roxbury and Jay and Silent Bob Strike Back playing in the background. I forgot how fun Sorry can be, even with just two players.

Sunday (01/09) we went out briefly to get groceries from Aldi and then stopped at Dunkin so I could try their new Brown Sugar Oat Iced Latte since I had a free birthday drink in my account.

It’s actually pretty good, but I’m perplexed why they added whipped cream on top. Not only is that not what the drink looks like in the app, but it doesn’t make sense to add a dairy product on a non-dairy drink (it’s made with oatmilk). I swear, no one at Dunkin knows how to make drinks properly anymore. The drink would have been nearly $7 without my coupon so at least there’s that. I scooped off the whipped cream when I got home but damn, they really aren’t doing anything to change my mind about boycotting them. $7 is a lot to pay for a drink that isn’t made correctly.

Thanksgiving 2021

Posted onNovember 30, 2021

Thanksgiving was very interesting this year. Not only did the kids come over, but their grandparents (on their mom’s side) did as well because we invited them. I am not going to get into the drama, but suffice it to say that none of them speak to the kids’ mom right now thanks to her horrible personal/political views. I mean, Joe and I knew she was not a good person, but it’s kinda refreshing for others to see it too. And that’s all I am going to say about that. We invited her parents because they’ve always been very kind to us and we hated the thought of them spending the holiday alone. They were wonderful guests, too; I have zero complaints.

Everyone arrived just before 2 pm and we worked to get food on the table since they came with an appetite. Other than the mac & cheese which I messed up (I later realized I mistakenly added 2 TABLESPOONS of ground mustard instead of teaspoons), everything was delicious. We had the usual fixings – turkey, mashed potatoes & gravy, green bean casserole, cranberry sauce, sweet potato casserole, crescent rolls, and corn. For dessert we had homemade oatmeal chocolate chip cookies (which I may have to stop making as I burned myself on the cookie sheet and will probably scar, just like the last time I made those damn cookies!), apple pie from Costco, and pumpkin pie from Mariano’s (which no one wanted, lol).

After dinner we played a new game the kids brought – UNO Flip. It was really fun! They had purchased two boxes so they left one with us. I’m sure we’ll be playing it for Christmas too. We played a game or two of Aggravation at one point, but went back to UNO Flip because it was so much fun. Even the grandparents played even though they aren’t into games like we are.

We took a family portrait before everyone left just before 10 pm. Such a nice holiday, other than Wookie barking at the new people. She eventually calmed down but every time grandpa went to the bathroom she had to bark at him for awhile again. Luckily they took it in stride.

Pool Party of 3

Posted onJuly 22, 2021

Our friend D invited us over to swim in her pool yesterday since she had the day off work, so of course it was the coolest day we’ve had in a long time. Luckily the sun did come out shortly after we arrived (3:30) and the water was very warm thanks to her heater, so we were able to get some swimming in before dinner. It’s been over two years since I last went swimming and I missed it so much! I wish we had our own pool.

I really don’t like going to our community pool, however, for a few reasons:

1) Covid

2) We have many more kids in the neighborhood now than we did two years ago

3) The heater has been broken pretty much since the pool opened Memorial Day weekend and they don’t seem to be in a hurry to fix it, despite them collecting fees for the pool last year and paying the pool company even though it never opened due to the pandemic.

At this point I would be ok with them closing it and reducing our association fees. They could turn that area into a small dog park or community garden.

Anyway, I enjoyed a cheeseburger, Joe had a brat, and we shared corn on the cob and a pork skewer. We brought watermelon and homemade Doubletree cookies* and fixings to make the Key Lime Pie Drink I wrote about on Father’s Day.

We stayed until almost 9:30 just relaxing and chatting. The nice thing is she lives very close so we were home in five minutes.

Wookie was not happy with us – she was yipping like crazy. I felt like she was scolding us for being gone so long. I think she has a touch of separation anxiety because unlike when we were gone for work (back when we had jobs), she doesn’t sleep while we’re away from the house. Every time I checked the cameras she was lying down, but in observation mode.

Once she calmed down I fed her and then she went to sleep. I took a shower to get the chlorine and firepit smell out of my skin and hair (later in the evening my friend’s daughter had friends over and they lit the fire) and then spent the next three hours decompressing before being able to go to sleep. Taking it easy today since I have an introvert hangover.

* When I first tried that recipe I wasn’t fully convinced I liked it, but unlike my famous oatmeal chocolate chip cookies, the cookie dough freezes quite nicely so we can bake a few cookies at a time. I whipped up a new batch on Tuesday and ended up with 34 cookie dough balls, 12 of which I baked yesterday morning, so we have 22 left in the freezer for when a craving strikes.

Father’s Day

Posted onJune 21, 2021

A couple of weeks ago K reached out to me about coming over for Father’s Day. I thought it was a great idea, and we decided I would handle the food and she could make a dessert for Joe. She and E arrived around 1 (side note: I LOVED that she texted me when they left the house and also when they were five minutes away) and stayed until just after 6.

We ordered pizza, boneless, wings, and stuffed mushrooms and I made some toasted ravioli (side note: why did Aldi stop selling toasted ravioli? It was so much better than the stuff we got from Walmart). The kids brought some alcoholic drinks for Joe (Crown Royal Washington Apple Whisky Cocktail & Not Your Father’s Root Beer) and we made a new mixed drink that K and I had – Simply Limeade mixed with whipped cream vodka which tastes like key lime pie.

So good I had two drinks yesterday and a small glass of it this morning… don’t judge!

We had cupcakes K made – yellow cake with chocolate frosting and sprinkles – all of Joe’s favorite things.

After eating we played 5 games of Aggravation before moving on to video games where we played Mario Kart and Bomberman. I wanted to play Penguin Wars too but the game wouldn’t load. It’s a digitally downloaded one so I’m not sure how to fix that.

The kids were so generous – not only did they get Joe a $50 Starbucks gift card, but they bought Wookie two toys.

E surprised me with a picture disc of Faith by The Cure from Record Store Day and a magazine with Robert Smith on the cover and a bonus CD cover version of Why Can’t I Be You. I was so touched!

I don’t actually own Faith on vinyl so it’s a great addition to my collection (and such a great album).

The evening ended with us attempting to go to bed early but the weather had other ideas. A little after 11 pm it started storming. The rain was coming down so hard it was deafening and unsettling. Then I heard an eerie whistling noise which scared the crap out of me because I couldn’t identify what it was. I later figured out it was a tornado siren a town over which is why it was so faint. Luckily we weren’t hit by any tornados but other towns in the area weren’t so fortunate.

Nintendo Switch

Posted onOctober 12, 2020

Earlier in the year when my health started improving (pretty much magically without any doctors’ help, which I really should write about at some point), I started talking about buying a Nintendo Switch. I was conflicted though because I get tired of games pretty quickly. We both have a Nintendo DS and a library of games we rarely play. Regardless, whenever we’d walk buy the Switches at Target I would consider buying one. Well, Costco then had them on sale but I hesitated too long and they sold out. Suddenly they weren’t available anywhere and of course at that point I decided I really wanted one!

Fast forward to the morning of September 22nd when I saw a deal site advertising Switches back in stock at Walmart. I went to their website but didn’t see any available. Then I had an idea: maybe if Walmart had some, Target would also. Sure enough, they did! Not at my local store, though, but to order for delivery. Joe was at Menards picking up the scaffolding to do the living room ceiling work so I decided to order the Switch without discussing it with him first (so it could be a surprise). It felt wrong because we always discuss large purchases. Luckily when it was delivered a few days later he was just as excited as I was even though I’m more of a Nintendo fan than he is.

Since the system didn’t come with any games we immediately headed to the library to see what they had and wow, was I impressed with their library of games.

Switch Games – Adult Section

The kids’ section is where all the really good games were, however.

We came home with the maximum number of games we were allowed to borrow at one time.

By far my favorite game was Penguin Wars. I have the same game on my original Gameboy. Joe and I had fun battling each other. So much so, in fact, I wanted to buy a copy but it’s already out of rotation. Instead of paying $20+ on ebay, I ended up buying a digital copy for $7.50 since it happened to be on sale. So that was my first actual purchase.

I also liked the Tsum Tsum game and Bubble Bobble. The rest I could do without.

A week later we got another batch of games, mostly Mario related.

I didn’t care for Mario Party, or the Rabbids collaboration, but I really liked Super Mario Odyssey and Paper Mario Origami King. And of course, Mario Kart 8 Deluxe which we’re going to have to buy at some point because it’s a Nintendo staple. You can modify the settings so you’re not able to die which makes it more fun. Nothing is more frustrating than flying off the edge of the track.

We also borrowed Burgertime (not pictured), but it was terrible. As was LEGO City Undercover which I was hoping to like.

Here’s our recent batch of games which are due back tomorrow:

I haven’t tried them all yet, but so far I am surprised to like Untitled Goose Game. I got it because it sounded so ridiculous, but it’s fun and I spent awhile playing it yesterday while lounging on the couch. I’m enjoying the Switch even more than I anticipated which is a relief.

Since none of the libraries in the area carry them, and they were on sale, I bought two games from Walmart that were delivered yesterday:

Bomberman R ($15) (for the battle screens, of course) and South Park Fractured But Whole ($20) because it sounds funny. I’m sure these games will keep us entertained through the cold, lonely winter.