Nudie Bar Friday!

Lacy baby swiss slices today.

No, really, it IS nudie bar Friday. You all might think less of me, but I'm going to a strip club tonight. I've never been to one & am ever so slightly curious. We have a friend that has been giddy to arrange the outing and won't let it drop. So, we just said yes to doing it tonight and will get it over with. I'm not excited. I'm dreading it a bit. But still, I'm curious. I think women are pretty, I like to watch dancers, I'm just not into seedy things. This is a fairly tasteful place, though (I think). I predict we'll stay an hour to make our friend happy and then bail out. I'm just feeling a little icky about this. And what DOES a woman wear to a strip joint?

A list is the cool thing to do

Mild brick and crackers this morning.

1. I'm going on a more regimented diet. It's easier to control what I eat when it's relatively the same thing for lunch each day. And not needing leftovers for lunch will help me eat less at night. No need to make big meals.

2. I want to fast forward thru April so I can start gardening. Mid-May is the earliest I can really plant anything here.

3. I returned something to JC Penny's yesterday. So many cute new spring clothes! I could use a shopping spree. I tend to be an all or nothing shopper. I rarely go shopping and just buy one shirt. I tend to shop three times a year for clothes and buy the whole season's wardrobe all at once. How do you shop for clothes?

4. Speaking of that, I suppose I should start hauling out my spring/summer clothes from storage.

5. I should get a pedicure on my birthday, shouldn't I? I should probably call for an appointment this week.

A secret

Artichoke dip loaded with parmesan just for MM today.

I can't log in through blogger, so I have to post on someone's blog before I can come and make a new post on mine. So my secret is that I sometimes post something completely stupid and boring on one of your blogs in the morning, just so I can get logged in. There usually aren't any new posts at 8 am, so I recomment on one from the previous day.

Heh, I had you all excited that it was a good secret.

On an unrelated note, to 24 fans, is this season the start of it jumping the shark, or is it just me?

The Long and Winding Road

Squeaky cheese curds-come and get em!

Friday was Chris's birthday. We took at road trip, at Chris's request, to our neighboring states. The entire trip was built around drinking and eating, by his choice.

Friday: Ate birthday lunch and drank birthday beer at Madison brewpub. Hit the road for Davenport/Rock Island/Moline/Benttendorf areas of Illinois and Iowa. We hit three brewpubs and a martini & cigar bar. The martini bar was cool. There was a great lounge singer to entertain us. Chris had some bourbon and a cigar. I had a chocolate martini of some sort and a cosmo with my favorite vodka (Ciroc).

Saturday: We hit the Rock Island Arsenal, a military base that has quite an interesting history. The arsenal museum was very cool. The base started being built during the civil war, so it was a POW camp where the prisoners helped to build the base. It was interesting to read how Confederate soldiers were guarded by black Union soldiers. You can imagine how well that went over.

Then it was a slow drive down the Mississippi Great River Road. It was a little rainy, but it was still a beautiful drive. We then hit Quincy, IL. We hit one bar (for wings) and one brewpub there. We think there was a prostitute convention in town, because we kept seeing lots of trashy women. But really, Quincy had a lovely downtown and some beautiful, big old houses.

Then it was off to Springfield, IL. We didn't get there til dusk, so there wasn't much sightseeing. All the bars/restaurants we had on our list were in strip malls, it seemed. And they were very family oriented. Bright lights, kiddos running around. Just not what we were looking for. So we found a quiet place that wasn't crowded where I delved into a horrific Springfield tradition: The Horseshoe. CAUTION: MAY CAUSE YOU TO THROW UP IN YOUR MOUTH A LITTLE. The horseshoe is two slices of sourdough bread, open face, topped with your choice of meat (I went for the bacon and tomoato combo), then covered in french fries and drenched in a cheese sauce. I ate all the bread and tomato, but had to leave some of the fries that were too soggy with cheese and the super salty bacon. It was an experience I had to try. It's like the poutine of the U.S. I will never eat it again.

Sunday we just drove home. Oh, I forgot, we had to eat breakfast at the Huddle House. Chris was excited to have his loaded hashbrowns with eggs on top.

That's the excitement in the life of Kim. After last weeks rushed pace, it was nice to slow down for the weekend. I, however, missed some good gardening weather. It's supposed to be nice for a few more days and then drop to average 50ish temps over the weekend.

It's sunny out!

Wunderbar cheese and sesame crackers today (no, I'm not making that up)!

I had my math exam and was busy with work yesterday. Glad that day is over.

I'm working from home today. Ali had to go to the vet. They have no idea what's wrong with her, so I paid for a lot of expensive tests. We'll hopefully find out more tomorrow. We realized today that she has a very tight front paw grip. We often had to pry her paws from the exam table today. I love my kitty and hope she's ok. The vet sent some liquid painkiller home with us, so she gets a squirt of that when Chris gets home.

I got as much work done this morning as I would've in a day in the office. Thus, I think I'll relax and do some projects around the house for the rest of the day. I need to vacuum up all the asian beetles roaming in the house and dead in the carpet.

@$!%^@!

No cheese. I can't afford cheese because my car keeps eating my money.

1. Tire incident in Jan/Feb (due to sliding into icy snow bank). Cost: $250
2. Cracked hose incident (due to ice chunk falling off car's wheel well in front of us) in Feb. Cost: $300
3. Flying chunk of ice off semi on interstate today cracking my whole headlight. Cost: $250 estimate

$800 for snow related incidents in three months. Cripes.

I'm focking moving. I should also mention that a girl rear-ended Chris, during a snow storm, this month when we had the truck. No damage to the truck, thank cod.

We wrote down the semi's company name and truck number. They are saying they won't pay for it. @#!$%

Look Back and Forward

Creamy swiss & bacon spread with crackers today.

We had a BLAST during our St. Patty's Day outing on Saturday. It was a group of 6-10 of us traveling throughout the city. We even made the Madison nightly news as a "group of revelers" at the Irish pub by the Capitol. We looked like dorks, but wow did we have fun. How did YOU celebrate St. Patrick's Day (lie to me if you must)?

I have an exam on Wednesday & have no idea how I'll have enough time to study. This math junk is hard. I spent all day yesterday on it, and feel like I mastered very little. If this exam doesn't go well, I might drop the class. Work is busy, too, which doesn't help. I have to survey night shift CNAs tonight, so won't be done with that til 11 pm. Yuck.

I'm looking forward to Seattle this summer. We got a Frommer's book and reading it is getting me excited. By then I'll be back in the normalcy of no school and no part-time job (that sucked up all of LAST summer).

Waaah!

My shirt won't be here on time. So today I must go shirt shopping. The shirt will not be unique, nor cool, but I must have a shirt.

Aged white cheddar and grapes today.

Unimportant TMI again (I changed the font to a light color so your eyes could skip it if you don't want to read it): I'm going on new birth control pills. It's the generic version of Seasonale. I'm very curious if this will help solve some of my girly issues. I'm also going to start having mammograms next year or the following (age 31 or 32). Finally, a doc that agrees it's a good idea to start early if I can cope with potential false-positive-type situations.

I have to clean the truck out tonight, as we are driving the crew around tomorrow. Chris is staying reasonably sober, as he's not feeling the greatest anyway. Turns out the flu symptoms were just a side effect of the pain meds, thank goodness. Don' t you have cleaning out vehicles? Well, in the summer I don't mind it so much. But it's cold out now.

Happy Thursday!

String Cheese for all!

It's been hella busy, but not so bad that I'm ready to cry in misery. Updates:

1) Chris injured his rotator cuff. Since every man I know has had this problem, I told him it was his rite of passage into old-manhood. He DOES turn 34 next week. *grin* So, he's in a sling and a lot of pain. And today? He's having flu-like symptoms. Poor guy.

2) It's new coffee creamer time! I usually drink my coffee black, but when fun creamers are available, I snag them up! I bought a Coconut Cream one for work and tried it this morning. Hm. I love the smell, I like the taste. Not sure I'd buy it again, but it's a fun diversion. The Almond Vanilla is at home. I'll try that on Saturday (we only make coffee at home on the weekends).

3) Brrrrr. I'm cold.

4) I'm ready for St. Patrick's Day this weekend, although I'm a bit dismayed my shirt hasn't yet arrived. :-(

Thanks for not leaving a cheesy mess in my blog!

In and Out This Week

I'm leaving a gigantic cheese tray today. I might be off blogland for a few days. Work is rather busy. And I hate my math prof. We are chugging along so great that he added another chapter to our exam next week. FOck!

I'll be thinking of you all! *smooch*

I was going to rant about work...

Beer cheese soup today. It's still rather cold here in WI, so a warm bowl of soup is good.

I had a work rant started, but it was rather long and boring. The basic idea is that my boss is too busy to effectively do her research, so it's all thrown in my lap. And frankly, I'm not qualified to do the really high level research methods and analysis. I can't even get a full hour meeting with her most weeks, thus, things drag out forever. She made some career decisions this week that would've made my life easier. Then recanted on them. Sigh.

*time out* Coffee spill!

So, since I'm not typing a really long rant (yeah, yeah, I know, that was long enough), I thought I'd ask you about vehicles. If you were to go shopping within your normal relative vehicle budget, what things would be most important to you, and what are some of the vehicles you'd consider? What is slightly above your budget and impractical, but you'd love to have?

Overtime is killing me.

Not mine. Chris's. I'm on salary, so my schedule often varies. I always make up for the really long days by cutting a few short over the next few weeks. However, Chris has been working overtime, and since we commute, that means I'm also up earlier and home later. It's wearing thin, but the money is nice.

I talked to Lasann last night! She's a real sweetheart. I really, really hope we meet in Seattle this summer!

Oh. Cheese. Right. Grilled mozzarella, spinach, basil and tomato sandwiches. Yum!

A few randoms

Turkey burgers with blue cheese or cheddar today. *flips burgers*

I used counting to fall asleep last night. I didn't count anything in particular, just needed to focus my mind on something else. I got a thought in my head about work and it wouldn't go away.

I need to call my sister and see how she is doing. She's finally figured out that working as a preschool teacher isn't going to provide for her and the boys long term, and that she can't be a great parent if she's around other kids all day long. She hasn't job searched for anything other than preschool and daycare jobs. Ever. But she's ready now, and I need to support her.

In other random news, I've been reading a lot lately. My three most recent reads were My Friend Leonard (Frey), The Camel Club (Baldacci) and The Mephisto Club (Gerristen). I guess I'm into clubs. I'm now reading The Book of Fate (Meltzer). I think I need some non-fiction next. I've toyed around with having a quarterly book club with my local friends. Quarterly seems very doable for people. That way, we still have plenty of time to read other stuff on our own, and nobody feels too rushed.

I present...my opinion

Parrano cheese and crispy sesame crackers this morning. It's a medium firmness cheese, but tastes like parmesan.

Three things I have an opinion about today:

Everyday Minerals
I know I mentioned I got the samples last week. I now love them. More than BM. Why? Because they have the option of a matte formula. And unlike previous "other" brands of mineral makeup I've tried, the matte doesn't make my skin look chalky. I'm in love with the matte EM foundation. And I also got some really pretty blush.

Movies: Barnyard and Man of the Year
Yuck and Yuck. Barnyard wasn't really funny at all. I laughed exactly three times. The animation isn't great. Man of the Year was ODD. It was almost a dark comedy. Not sure Robin Williams was the best choice for the lead role. I don't really recommend it unless it's on tv.

We did see a great movie on the Independent Film Channel this weekend. It was based on a true story of the Burma democracy movement and violence. Patricia Arquette (of Medium) played the lead role and was very good. She was brunette in the movie and looked good as a brunette.

What a lazy weekend it was. Well, other than my four hour Saturday morning cleaning spree. I scrubbed the master bath floor by hand (it's a big bathroom) and cleaned the shower grout. That sucked more than most things.

Yay! It's Friday!

Brie and bread today, my pretties.

We have no plans for the weekend. I'll get lots of exercising done and only have a little homework to do. Our house needs some serious cleaning, so that's what I hope to spend a lot of time doing. We'll also be watching Barnyard and Man of the Year. I also have some thank yous to write to some fabulous peeps.

*pout* Everyone is vacationing. My sister leaves this weekend for a Florida resort, Breezy is going to Hawaii, Carey is going to Mazatlan next month. *double pout* I want a warm vacation. And I so want to move to a warmer climate.

Which one?

Guinness shirts (1st for Chris, 2nd one for me):























Or, matching, personalized Drinking Team shirts? I'm having a style issue with this...baseball tees aren't so flattering on me when they aren't semi-fitted. It's either baseball unfitted, or a junior size (that's what's shown first here) that won't fit me very well at all:

I should've stayed home

Appenzeller fondue today. Dip in!

The weather was really crappy today. Chris dropped me at the bus stop so I could take the bus across town to work. Then, he didn't have to keep driving in the crappy conditions and would get to work on time. I had to wait 25 minutes for an effing bus. Grrr. And brrrr.

I told my boss last night I might stay home today, but the forcasters said "eh, it's just going to be rainy. I don't know why schools are starting late and closing." Glare ice with snow on top as we got closer to Madison.

On a brighter note, at least I'll be eating fondue with my friends here today. And my Everyday Minerals samples came yesterday. I ordered them after someone in that thread where Geg said she couldn't use BM recommended the EM. I think they are the most comparable to BM I've tried.