Last Week
We went to dinner with Jeff's new boss Derek and his wife Sonja. They were really nice and we had a good time chatting with them and eating great food at Louisianne's. Husband Jeff had the crawfish etouffee and I had the catfish Louisianne with a mustard cream sauce that was so mustardy and good!The next night I went to dinner with my new friend Heather from Zumba class. It was another great night out chatting, this time enjoying some sushi. I was impressed that about 1 year ago they moved to Madison from Oregon state in about three weeks when her husband received a call that he had gotten a job at the university here. Wow! And they didn't rent a moving truck at all, they put everything they had into a single PODS container and then drove here in their car(s).
I sneaked shredded zucchini into pancakes for dinner. Turned out great! I love making pancakes on my electric skillet. Now that we have the new banquette, Sonny D says he loves eating in the dining room and seems to want to eat there for every meal. I like the dining room too, but I would prefer that we still eat breakfast in the kitchen every day since it seems like we spend a lot of time getting up to make coffee, grab more cereal or oatmeal, throw bread in the toaster oven, retrieve forgotten vitamins, etc.
We had lunch with my step-brother and his wife at Nora's II on Saturday. We were kind of hoping for a fun adventure at a roadside tavern, but it was pretty quiet and uneventful. The only scandal was that they wouldn't let us order breakfast at 11:30 even though they said it was offered until noon. The excitement for the day was Sonny D, Husband Jeff, and my step-brother all working together to win a little stuffed dog from one of those claw games. Apparently my step-brother is a pro at them. I suggested that Sonny D name the dog Nora in honor of the restaurant where he got her and he seems to like it.
Throughout the week we cleaned out some more things from our office, mainly books from the bookshelf (and the bookshelf itself!), but a few other things as well. On Sunday we attempted to take a load of books to Half-Price Books, but they insist you stay at the store with your books while they're getting priced. I was trying to get several chores done before we had to head home for a nap and didn't want to stick around, so we'll do that another day. But we did manage to drop off a few bags of things at Goodwill and I went inside to shop and found us a larger kitchen steamer and a new compost bin for the kitchen countertop. It feels so good to clean things out and pare down. For fall I'm planning to take out all of my clothes from the closet, dresser, and underbed container and assess everything, getting rid of the extras, anything I don't love, etc.
I'm also making a tiny bit of progress in my home decorating. I put a coat of golden metallic glaze on a piece of furniture (was my toybox growing up but now it holds blankets and we sit on it to put on our shoes). I also came up with a redesign for our entryway closet, my plan has a high hanging rod for long coats, a lower hanging rod, and one side wall set up with storage for shoes. I don't know if my design will work, but I'll sketch it up and see what's possible.
This Week
Yay! A quiet week, should be nice. I'm hoping to do more random organizing and cleaning out around the house. For food I'm still trying to get rid of things from the freezer since it's so full. Plus that's where all my glass Pyrex containers are!- Monday - pasta with red sauce and eggplant and garlic bread. I might roast the eggplant and puree it to go in with the red sauce.
- Tuesday - scrambled egg tacos with sesame green beans. I've got Zumba and I'm trying to convince the guys to go swimming while I'm class.
- Wednesday - oven-fried fish with garden tots (made from zucchini!)
- Thursday - cheese ravioli with cream sauce (hoping to hide more zucchini here) and frozen Trader Joe's spanakopita.
- Friday - fried rice (carrot, zucchini, peas, and egg) along with frozen egg rolls and pot stickers.
- Saturday - no Core Fusion class because it was cancelled.
- Sunday - Northside farmers' market visit.