December 2015 – Page 2 – Not Content to Crawl

Gift Wrapping, Luong-Loi, Game Night

Posted onDecember 20, 2015

I only had one thing on my to do list on Friday, and that was to wrap Joe’s gifts. I’m happy to report that I got through it. I even wrapped E’s gifts even though I don’t love gift wrapping because I stink at it. I put my newest favorite show – It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia – on Netflix and got to work. It was a nice relaxing day with a little productivity thrown in.

Saturday we had lunch at Luong-Loi – our favorite Vietnamese restaurant. It was a long time coming. See, sometime over the summer we happened to drive past the restaurant’s location when I noticed the storefront was completely empty. No sign or anything. The place was just gone. I was in shock, and extremely sad. I’m not sure what possessed me to check out their website about a month or so later, but I was excited to learn that they were actually moving the restaurant across the street and would be reopening in October. Except they didn’t. We happened to drive past the old location again and there was a sign in the window that said “we went back to Vietnam”. I was so confused, but I thought that meant they changed their mind and wouldn’t be returning after all. Finally they started communicating via their Facebook page that they were back from vacation and working on the new restaurant. There were some delays thrown in so their reopening date kept getting pushed back until they finally opened this past Friday.

We were so excited we ended up order four dishes – mongolian beef, garlic chicken, sweet & sour chicken, and kung pao chicken. With the exception of the beef, which tasted fishy, everything was as delicious as I remember. I particularly like the kung pao (which I’m eating right now as I type out this entry, in fact). I’m also happy that each dish comes with it’s own side of rice unlike before where they’d bring one plate of rice that wasn’t enough (and not bring out any more so I’d have to make more rice at home to go with the leftovers). I’m bummed that the mongolian beef isn’t good anymore, but happy the kung pao is since they introduced lunch specials for only $8. Much cheaper than just ordering a ton of food like we did.

Saturday night we were invited to a game night at my friend, C’s, house. We go to lunch every so often and trade magazines (I get her People magazines which is awesome since that subscription is expensive) and she’s been to our house a couple of times, including once for a game night with her husband years ago. We brought Uno Attack with us which we played first. Then we played one of their games, Pay Day, which we’ve never played before. It’s fun! I won too. Hehe. Their cat finally came downstairs after we had been there a couple of hours and even let me pet her which they said is unusual so I felt special. She’s such a beautiful cat – grey with green eyes. And she doesn’t shed just from being touched, unlike the two orange kitties I was pet-sitting earlier this month. The time just flew by – we arrived at 6 pm and ended up leaving just after 10:30 pm. It was a fun night!

In the Christmas Spirit

Posted onDecember 14, 2015

We had a fun weekend. Earlier in the week we discussed checking out Illumination at the arboretum since the temps were unseasonably warm, but I preferred Thursday due to crowd level. Unfortunately, it was super windy that day so we decided we would go on Friday. That afternoon I was mulling over whether I was up to dealing with people, and paying $24 for the privilege (and that’s with our member discount!). When I got home to check how many tickets were sold to get an idea of how crowded it would be, the entire evening was already sold out. Saturday evening as well. That’s 5000 tickets sold each night. Yikes! Problem solved. I wasn’t even that disappointed so that is proof it worked out for the best.

Nextdoor.com has a cool feature called a Cheer Map where residents add their favorite holiday decor in their neighborhood so I grabbed a bunch of addresses, plotted them in Google Maps, and programmed the GPS. Our first stop was a couple addresses in Wheaton. One was dubbed the Clark Griswold house but I wasn’t very impressed. See for yourself.

It was pretty funny, however, when I heard the owner’s neighbor remark, “look, they are taking pictures of your house” because the guy was hanging out next door.

Our next stop was Noodles & Company for dinner and to pick up a gift card since ’tis the season for bonuses. After dinner we resumed our small tour which ended at Lilacia Park in Lombard. We typically visit the park only once a year when all their lilac bushes and tulips bloom. We had no idea they go out at Christmastime too. We were very impressed with the number of lights. They put Cosley Zoo, which we had also intended to visit, to shame.

It was so nice strolling trough the park taking in the lights since the temps were around 50 degrees. We ended up skipping the zoo since it would pale in comparison. We might still visit at some point before the end of the month, however.

Our last stop of the evening was Target to grab some gifts. We are completely done with our shopping now! Now I just need to motivate myself to wrap Joe’s gifts.

Saturday we headed to the mall to use a Groupon that was going to expire in a week. First we stopped Payless where I picked up an infinity scarf for only $8 (50% off plus an additional 25% of coupon).

I’ve wanted one for over a year but I’m pretty picky, not to mention too cheap to spend $20 on one.

Our next stop was Bath & Body Works because their hand soaps were on sale one day only for $2.50. Honestly, I find even $2.50 a bit overpriced but much better than their regular price of $6.50. I only intended to buy two bottles but ended up with four.

I wanted something holiday themed but I also am addicted to the Japanese Cherry Blossom thanks to my cousin who gave me a bottle over the summer. I put the Candy Cane Bliss by the kitchen sink and the Vanilla Bean Noel by the bathroom one. They both smell soooo good that I already know it will become an annual tradition to buy them on sale around the holidays.

We swung by Red Robin to buy a gift card (another bonus offer) before heading to the restaurant to redeem our Groupon at a place called Quick Fire Cafe. It was pretty dead and I was worried it was going to suck, especially because it’s Italian food which isn’t my favorite, but it was actually quite good. Service was fantastic, and even though I do not care for vodka sauce, theirs is amazing. It is award winning, though! Even the minestrone soup was impressive. One the rare occasion I’m looking for something fancier than spaghetti and meatballs I could see going there again.

Later in the afternoon I stopped at the library to pick up Christmas CDs I had placed on hold. With a mug of hot cocoa, my Yankee Candle Christmas Cookie candle burning, and Christmas music paying, we went to work decorating the house. Joe tackled the tree (which we decided to put in the dining room this year) while I decorated the fireplace mantel and CD cabinet.

I decided I wanted to try bead garland this year which I bought at Walmart Sunday morning. It was a little more challenging than I expected, so halfway through stringing it on Sunday I gave up. I finally got the hang of it and finished decorating the tree Monday afternoon. I went with a red/green/silver scheme on the tree this year. Usually it’s random ornaments but I’ve wanted to do a more put together look for years now.

I think it came out quite nice!

Krampus Mattress

Posted onDecember 11, 2015

Last weekend Joe had to work Saturday but got home shortly after E’s mom dropped him off at the house. Joe wanted to see a movie so we took our chances and braved the mall on a Saturday afternoon (the movie was at 2:15 pm). At first it wasn’t crowded at all but slowly the theater filled up. We didn’t have anyone right next to or in front of us, though, which was nice. However, there were a group of teenager girls all the way down our row to my left who would not sit still for a second. They were changing seats, talking, and looking at their phones the entire hour and a half. Is this what the world has come to – people lacking anything resembling an attention span? Seriously, why pay to see a movie if you’re not even going to watch it? Not to mention how rude it is to look at your bright phone screen in a dark theater. Ugh! It’s getting harder and harder to enjoy time out in public when it seems as if at least 50% of the people we come across are rude as all hell. I almost wish I were just as rude because then maybe it wouldn’t bother me. But I’m cursed with this sense of consideration for others. Damn me!

Anyway, the movie itself, Krampus, was ok. Not nearly as scary as they tried to make it look in the previews. It also started off slow. I think it was half over before anything even happened. E and I enjoyed joking about the movie title, though. I have a krampus just thinking about it. ;)

Sunday we bought one of those egg crate looking mattress toppers to add to the memory foam topper already on our brand new mattress. My worst fear has come true – I hate the new mattress and feel we overpaid for what we got. It’s too firm and uncomfortable. Lesson learned – we need a pillowtop. Everything I’ve read says a firm mattress offers more support but all I have is a backache and wake up at least once every night, although that hasn’t happened since adding the second mattress topper. So ridiculous, though, to spend $1500 on a mattress and another $17 for a shitty Walmart topper for it to be comfortable (the memory foam topper we purchased from Amazon last year cost approx $120). Hopefully the inflated price tag of the new mattress will at least ensure a stable frame for the next decade or so. Otherwise I’m buying a $200 mattress every two years and calling it a day. I’d return our mattress if we could but that ship has sailed. We had 30 days and would have had to exchange it for something the same price or higher AND pay a $140 fee for the “privilege”. Ugh! I should have went with my gut and ordered a Casper mattress online. At least they offer a 90 day trial and 100% money back guarantee. Expensive lesson learned. And this, folks, is why I HATE shopping for a mattress.

Wednesday Joe’s car battery died and he was temporarily stranded at the gas station near his work until one of his coworkers came to rescue him. The battery was so dead that even a jump couldn’t get it started. He bought a new battery at Walmart and that solved the issue. His car is eight years old and the battery had never been replaced so we really can’t complain. It was just crappy timing. I’m just glad it was only the battery and not the starter. We were also still able to make it to E’s concert later that evening. It was a combined one with the various school bands and chorus, choir, whatever they call it where they played a lot of holiday songs. One of the songs, performed by an all-male group, included “serenading” a female teacher including getting on their knees in front of her with flowers in their mouths. Personally, I found it appalling. Half the place is laughing and cheering and I’m just sitting there thinking this is wildly inappropriate. I’m not a prude by any means but the whole thing made me extremely uncomfortable.