Eve Of a New Year

I'm getting old. So are my friends.

You know how I know that... besides the fact that this may be backdated? Haha...

.... Just about everyone I've talked to this year had formulated plans for New Year that included more "No idea" and "Mehh... I dunno..." than actual plans. Haha. Personally, I don't hate it. I really had no desire to go anywhere and find myself watching a ball drop surrounded by loud, drunk strangers. It didn't help that the weather started a nose dive into that wet, sticky snow that isn't fun even for play; as soon as you touch it, it turns to slush and soaks through all your clothes at what seems to be double the pace of regular water.

So.... as we finished up our half day at work [right???], Rob came up to meet us at work; Ali joined us and we trekked over to STL Bread Company for lunch before heading our separate ways. Rob & I kept it super exciting with some errands and miscellaneous things before I headed home to do more fun things like laundry, cleaning my house and washing dishes. Haha. Oh, and I managed to get another gorilla bread assembled in that time. I still need to pinch Nancy for giving me that recipe... haha.

Dinner? Red Lobster. We didn't take any pictures, but ironically my other Ali friend posted one just moments afterwards of the exact same dish one of the girls at our table ordered. Nobody's complaining; RL is a good choice if for no other reason than cheddar bay biscuits. Let's just be honest. (:



Festivities pertaining to the actual ringing in of 2013 boiled down to us relaxing with a group of Rob's friends at their house, around a table filled with more food [nooooooooo, lol] and some perfectly sober laughing to move us all from 2012 to 2013. I was a big fan.

We ended the night with Kelly and I watching Rob & Mike set off some fireworks from the yard... haha.. rowdy, I know. It was a competition with the neighbors across the street for a few minutes before we all called it a night. We're party rockers... for sure [pshhh.. haha].


2012 is over. Holy cow.
I'm excited for 2013.
I hope you are, too!

xo | cmd

Pitch Perfect!

Every so often, I have one of those days that really just doesn't start on the right foot. It's not so much like the old coinage "waking up on the wrong side of the bed" as it is the entire bed collapsed, flipped over, and dumped me into the toilet. Sounds weird, but if I had to guess, I'd say we've all been there at least once.

Well, good news is, I didn't have one of those mornings today.
Bad news is, poor Ali did... sorta.
Ali got in a fender bender on her way in [thankfully she's okay]; her poor car is another story, but she's okay. I totally understand the frustration behind starting your day off that way, so it made me feel less guilty about having a decent morning when we decided we'd meet up after work to go see Pitch Perfect.

See, Ali's boyfriend is a manager at The Lincoln in downtown Belleville. He met up with us for a moment at Panera St. Louis Bread Co. [excuuuuse me] before we made a stop for gelato [hi, Bulent!] and settled in for our final stop at the theater.

I didn't really know what to expect from this movie, but it was..... hilarious. It could've had a lot do with the fact that Ali is absolutely excellent company [toooooo.funny], because by the time we left, we were both nursing side-pangs from laughing through the entire film.

**SPOILER ALERT**


You all know I'm a sucker for vocal competition, harmonies & arrangements. That, and stupid movies like this have always been a ridiculous vice of mine. To top it off, I think Anna Kendrick is the cutest little thing with a stellar voice, and Rebel Wilson is... well, she's Rebel Wilson and you can't help but laugh at her unabashed candor on film.

I said all that to say that I'm glad to have been a part of the upswinging part of Ali's day - hopefully the car situation is resolved soon and everything gets back into working hours.

If I see this movie again within the next couple weeks, well.... yeah. (:

xo | cmd

NO Transformers In The House! ;)

Ya see that?  That, my dear blogbots, is nothing more than a simple chai latte from Bread Co, but it was delivered by one of our clients. He toted in three little lattes and three little bagels for three gals who didn't realize how delicious they both would be this morning. How thoughtful, right? [Thanks, Warren!]

So I can't complain about how the morning started once we got going; M&D are out this week at Summit, so we're left again to our own devices. The day passed by without too much fuss and that was that. I made a pitstop at St. Clair Sq. at yet another attempt to nail down a dress option for Michelle's wedding next weekend. Update on that? SUCCESS. As Nancy would've said, "Cha cha CHAAAA...."

At home, I found Mo already there, with Jimmy following about 15 minutes later, and lastly, Joe. Since he's slated to do some travelling for work that does not warrant flight time, he rented a car for the journey.

Well.. let me re-phrase that.

He rented a Transformer. I'm pretty sure Bumblebee is in my garage. It's pretty wicked cool, the ONLY exception being that this is in fact real life, Cori, and the autobots don't really exist.

Well boo hiss. [It still looks like a Transformer. Hmph!]

Anyway, we thought it would be fun to take it for a spin out to dinner; as funny as it was, the short jaunt to Texas Roadhouse was quite the episode as it was the four of us plus Syd in her carseat.

*Note: This car is not really meant to have backseat passengers. Haha.

Oh well. We're back here now, at home; the boys are downstairs disassembling the tent - pardon me, the castle, and Mo and I are about to zonk out to some CSI. I love our dear friends. That's a good Thursday, yeah?

I think so :)

xo | cmd

Sucker Sinuses [but a] Better Backyard!

Ugggggghhhhkkkkk....

Remember that sinus thing that I'd been hoping wouldn't materialize into anything? Yeah... welllllll... Yeah.

I spent the entire morning asleep.
For what it's worth, so did Sydni. She'd been developing a runny nose and glossy eyes over the latter part of last week I thought I could slip under the radar of whatever bug she had, but that's never the case and certainly isn't this time, either.

I'm definitely sick. Booo, hiss hiss. I was thankful in a slightly disdainful way that Sydni hasn't fully recovered yet; her mild case of the lazies today proved a reprieve to me in my state of complete and utter lethargy.

Sydni was sprawled out on her bed watching Little Mermaid, and I was equally resigned to the couch nursing a sinus migraine when Mo materialized at the front door. She came bearing broccoli cheddar soup from Panera St. Louis Bread Company [I keep forgetting] for me, mac n' cheese for Sydni, and some other soup for herself. Thank you, a million times over for being so thoughtful, Mo!! We ate, and I decided we would finally get out for some gelato. We made a quick trip there, enjoyed some, and headed straight back to the house.

So um, yeah. That was pretty much the bulk of today, in a nutshell. OH! I figured I'd share this with the class, since I haven't yet:

before.
view from the yard | view from the staircase

after.
not quite finished.... yet :)

Here's the before and after of what I did a couple days earlier. This menagerie that was the back patio, out of control as it was, was the direct result of us working full days, not being out there nearly as often as we would've liked, and investing what little free time we both have into hanging out and getting out with Sydni. It didn't take long for this to get unruly, but I finally decided enough was enough, so yeah. That's what happened. 


Anyway, I'm still feeling a lot like what I envision..... death feels like... lol.
It... is... bed...time... for us. 


xo | cmd

St. Louis Bread Company

Yeah yeah yeah, Monday. I’m thankful we survived each other, again. See ya next week.



panera? or st. louis bread company?



So, back home in Cincinnati – well, Ohio in general, really – there is a place called Panera Bread. I’ve seen them all over the place, even when we lived in Alabama. What I didn’t realize though, is that Panera’s parent company is the St. Louis Bread Company, and that, aptly named, it’s centered out of St. Louis. That means that in the are of Illinois in which I live, there are all kinds of St. Louis Bread Company locations. We ate there tonight, because the novelty of the name made us feel like it was actually something new. 



I’m such a tourist.

After Panera, it was off to church softball, where the boys secured a well-deserved win and the crowd cheered them right along. I love these outings.

I feel like this will be a good week. I guess that’s mostly up to me, huh. J

xo | cmd