For one of my first kidless afternoons, I decided to run some errands. Do I look free and unencumbered?! Positively joyful?
How about now? (Still giddy, even though I’m on my way to pick up the kids.)
(I have technically had one or two kidless afternoons since Katie has started school, but either my parents were here or Tom came home early so even though I was kidless I technically wasn’t alone. If that makes sense.)
I had to return some shoes to Nordstrom Rack so I looked for the $90 dress. And look what I found?! The dress—just with yellow instead of pink! And only $30! Perfect! 🙂 Except…they only had sizes S and XS. Of course. 🙁 (I also found a Large of the other V-neck dress but even though lots of friends liked it, I just didn’t love it. Plus it was more expensive.)
So I asked and they were able to order it in my size from another store! Even with the $7.95 S/H it was a major bargain (a savings of 44%)!!!
So while we were out, we stopped by Marshall’s so I could look for a similar, less expensive dress than the one I was wearing.
The top photos are the original $90 dress that I love…and the bottom dress is a similar $30 version of the same brand. Interestingly, the original was an XL and the less expensive version was a M—both fit, but I think a L would have been a *cough* happy medium. 🙂
I polled my Facebook friends to see what they thought, and it was pretty evenly split between the two.
I really wanted to keep the original dress but $90 was just ridiculous. And I really wanted to love the new dress but it just wasn’t right, either (even at the cheaper price). So I decided to be an adult and return both, pledging to keep my eyes open for the perfect dress. 🙂
I love this dress from my current Le Tote tote, but…
I love that I’m able to wear these awesome clothes but I hate that I’m now learning what REALLY NICE clothes feel like. 🙂
We ran a bunch of errands today and this happened on the way home about 12:30. So I sat in the car with her and read. 🙂
Tonight’s creation: Italian crust, goat cheese with olive oil and rosemary, smoked grilled chicken, red onion, and jalapeño…cooked on a baking steel. Loved it! DELISH!
Yes, I’m glad we got it and I’m quite used to it. But I still look forward to the day I can get rid of it. 🙂
However, there was a Fairfax Water truck on the street so I wasn’t worried. Owen asked the guy what was happening and was told they do this once a year to make sure they work. We must have missed it last year.
Edited to add: If I had been reading my Twitter feed, I would have found this:
Does Your Water Taste Funny? Spring Flush on Tap
Each spring, Fairfax Water flushes its water mains by opening fire hydrants and allowing them to flow freely for a short period of time.
The kids woke me up to tell me there were ants all over the floor. I was a bit groggy, but…WHAT?!
Yep, they were right.
I have NO idea how pieces of Maggie’s food got over there or why all the ants suddenly bombarded us (it seems there are always random bits of food somewhere and we’ve never had ants yet) so out came the Taro.
We just made our best pizza yet!
Goat cheese with rosemary and garlic infused oil*, caramelized onions, flank steak, and fresh mozzarella. I mixed too much oil into the goat cheese so it seeped out in the oven and started to smoke on the stone…but the bonus side effect was actually a crispier, fried crust! It was our best pizza yet!
* We were gifted a bottle of goat cheese that was marinated in rosemary and roasted garlic oil. After the amazingly delicious goat cheese was gone, we used the oil mixed with our own (Costco) goat cheese to make a paste for the pizza.
It was also fun seeing both cars in the driveway all weekend! We did see one or two strange looks from our neighbors. 🙂
This pic was taken at the mall—we took two cars so the boys and kids didn’t have to spend all day shopping for my new wardrobe.
Food bender, that is—dinner out with 15 peeps at what turned out to be an amazing restaurant (Green Pig Bistro).
The food was all excellent and everyone was passing around plates to try everything (because the portions were HUGE)…so on top of probably 15 bites of random dishes (which would have been a complete meal in itself), I ate my entire plate (which actually was one of the smaller plates—four tiny scallops and probably a cup of crab and coconut risotto) and then a few bites of desserts (ours, plus others!).
I didn’t feel overstuffed at the time, though I knew I obviously ate too much. But I ended up waking up during the night feeling like I had a hangover. I actually had to think: “Wait. Did I drink last night?” Because it felt sooo similar. (Note: I didn’t drink.)
The following morning I didn’t even want to think about food. And I was nervous to step on the scale—I had actually been pretty close to losing my 4# of fluff but that went out the window. But DAMN it was worth it. 🙂
One fun part of the dinner was a surprise birthday dessert for Tom! We had seen another table get the sparkler and one of us decided that it should happen at our table because fire. And they just happened to pick Tom!
Happy un-birthday, Tom!
And I can’t even say it’s the first time it’s happened.
I moved the Sea Cow today because I finally took down the snowman and small Christmas trees.
A friend shared a video on Facebook showing how to make a no-sew bag from a T-shirt. I normally bookmark these types of things with grand plans to do them but then never actually go back and do them. Amiright? But since I happen to have an abundance of T-shirts and 10 minutes to spare, I decided to make me a bag. 🙂 I actually think no-sew was the key term for me.
I used a really big tee (3X) and consequently had a really big bag:
Unfortunately I don’t think it came out looking quite as cute as I had hoped. (It will still work, of course, but just doesn’t look as cute.) It’s also hard to find a tee without graphics on the front/back that will most likely get cut into and ruined. I thought this one was low enough down but it looks funny. Again, it will work…it’s just not exactly right. So I’d suggest plain tees.
It was also very confusing when tying the second layer together—it was hard to tell which strips were supposed to be tied. Maybe it was because it was all black or maybe it was just my old eyes. Or maybe it would have been easier if I had cut the strips longer. (Yes, probably that one.) But it was a valiant first effort and only took maybe 10 minutes so I’ll likely try again.
The video originally posted was in Japanese and didn’t give full instructions so I searched YouTube and found this one which is a bit better.
Philly steak and onions for us and pepperoni for the kids. With Alfredo sauce and fresh mozzarella, otherwise known as “stringy” cheese.
I’ve been experimenting with pizza dough in the stand mixer so we’ve been having lots of pizza and breadsticks. For pizzas, we often just use whatever leftovers we have…and the kids get cheese or pepperoni. However, tonight we both got leftovers: mac and cheese for the kids (hope they like it) and chimichurri, steak, and pickled onions for us. Of course topped with cheese.
The verdict? Owen loved it, Katie tolerated it. Ours sounded better than it tasted but it wasn’t bad. But unfortunately the crust was overdone (not sure why—I did everything the same as previous times when it turned out).
The house is 72°, I have on a long-sleeve tee and a Columbia fleece, wool socks, and am under a thick blanket with a dog on my lap in front of the fire. And I’m cold.
I don’t think I actually fully warmed up for about four hours.
New friends (Nate, a co-worker of Tom’s I’d never met—and his wife), newbies to dinner (friends from T-ball, mutual friends, and now Owen’s first grade class), good food (gumbo, rice, homemade white bread and spaghetti bread), amazing desserts (peanut butter bars and carrot cake by Nate!), and great kids equals gumbo dinner party success!
Through a small comedy of errors, Allison spilled red wine on herself a mere five minutes after arriving…so I loaned her a shirt (same shirt, different color) and we were twins!
I love her face!
Making pizza dough in the stand mixer is always interesting. I’m always surprised that it crawls up the sides…and if I turn it past medium, I think it may walk right off the counter! But it makes decent crust.
#myeyesarecrossed
#mybackissore