Holy crap, I’m 37 years old! When did that happen?
I had a nice birthday yesterday. Low-key, but relaxed. Joe took the day off work and we just hung out. After showering I opened my gifts from Joe which included lip balm, three Ugly dolls, some candy, a Sheldon bobble-head, and pepper spray (which I had wanted so I feel comfortable walking the dog on my own during the day). We agreed not to spend much and besides, how could Joe possibly top last year’s gift (an iPad)? ;)
We went to Panera for breakfast since I had a gift card and we don’t usually eat there in the morning. We wanted to try the steel cut oatmeal but they were all out so we had bagel sandwiches instead which reminded us why we don’t usually eat breakfast there – it’s not that great. We’d much rather go there for lunch or dinner.
After breakfast we went to Meijer to pick up some ingredients for a new recipe I want to try later this week. I just learned about their Mperks “membership” you can sign up for free online and has coupons you can clip. You don’t even have to print them out – you just enter your phone number and account PIN into the keypad at the register and any qualifying coupons are subtracted from your total. I ended up paying $0.50 for some chicken sausage thanks to them being on sale and combining an Mperks coupon with a manufacturer’s one.
We went back home for awhile to relax and then ventured to California Pizza Kitchen for lunch. We always split the BBQ chicken salad there but we also had their “small plate” quesadilla appetizer which was really yummy and spicy thanks to the dipping sauce. I had a coupon so our bill was reasonable. We hadn’t eaten there in a long time so it was a nice treat.
We debated going to see a movie but nothing all that appealing is currently playing and even the current Redbox offerings didn’t thrill me. That’s the bummer about having a birthday in Winter – I’d love to go to a park, forest preserve, or zoo but it’s way too cold for that. I did debate going downtown to the Shedd Aquarium since admission was free but didn’t really feel like trekking out there in the cold either.
We ordered Lou Malnati’s pizza for dinner and then I got a nice massage from my hubby later in the evening. It was a good day and I enjoyed having alone time with Joe. We don’t get a lot of that with his sister living with us so it was nice. I miss him today. Being away from work is nice but it’s lonely without my best friend.