Working for the weekend

It's finally Saturday and we celebrated by sleeping in until 10:00 am! Between bible study, singing practice, birthday parties after work, and hours of treasury training for my second job, I was truly looking forward to at least one day when I could sit back and relax. And by sit back and relax I mean only spend two hours on the laptop running reports and paying bills for the church. But somehow, I managed to squeeze out a little time between loads of dishes and laundry and grocery shopping to spend a little time creating magically delicious treats in the kitchen this evening. I found a recipe for chocolate cookies to which I added peanut butter chips.
While they were baking, the Canadian bided his time by drinking his new favorite drink of Southern Comfort with lemonade with a grape vine straw.
Move over red vines, there's a new licorice in town and it's delicious!

I'm hoping that even though we practically slept in until noon, I can get to bed at a decent time because I sing in the morning which means that I have to wake up at the crack o' dawn for practice. I've been spending some time this evening listening to my song set on youtube.

Oh-there goes the buzzer for the second load of laundry in the dryer. My household duties never end!

Foot follies

There was a mutiny at work today and my co-workers forced me to go to the doctor to look at my fat foot. It's gotten so sore that I'm limping now when I wear shoes. I left after lunch and went straight to my surgeon's office, who, after pushing on my leg and foot immediately sent me to the hospital to be checked for blood clots. The ultra-sound tech didn't give away any secrets, but I guess there wasn't anything too suspicious because they let me leave. In the meantime the surgeon's office was also setting me up an appointment with the lymphedema clinic in town to be fitted for another compression garment for my right leg. Will the fun never end?!

That whole rodeo kind of shot my evening plans of cleaning and baking for bible study tomorrow night. Instead Chris helped me do a quick pick-up and I ran over to Trader's for my last minute dinner ingredients.
I found an online recipe for baked gnocchi - lasagna style. Layers of tomato sauce, cheese, spinach, gnocchi, repeat. Bought some olive focaccia bread and the makings for a pear and walnut salad to go with it. I was going to bake a dessert out of my new Dorie Greenspan baking book, but too much going on tonight to get it done so a store bought dessert is in my future. I'll save it for next time because it sounds delicious - a cardamom and coffee marble loaf.

Green Bay all the way!

Who was on the front page of the sports section in the E.R. this morning? Our hometown hero, Aaron Rodgers;
Giving it up for Butte College! Of course we watched the game and cheered him on to victory. Steelers and Packers in the super bowl - should be exciting!

I finally busted out my new panini press today to prepare our lunch. I had picked up some sandwiches from Safeway and threw them in the hot press to warm up and melt the cheese.
It was a big hit with the Canadian who had a salami and cheese sandwich. Must find more things to grill, pronto.

Giving up

While I'm able to pamper my fat foot over the weekend while at home, I can't seem to keep the swelling down during the work day. My doctor's office said that if all the other tricks didn't work to try a compression stocking. I finally gave in today and went to the pharmacy to pick one up. It made me yowl putting it on because it was so tight on the top of my swollen foot, but once I got used to the pressure it actually made my foot feel better.
It's going to go nicely with my dresses!

The scarlet letter

So that others will know what evil lurks beneath his seemingly normal exterior, Chris must wear the scarlet t-shirt;
It's easier than wearing a mountie hat and riding a moose.

Fat foot

For the most part I've been healing up nicely from my leg surgery....with the exception of the incessant swelling of my right foot. I've been trying to elevate it, but to no avail so I finally had to refresh my little mind and re-read about the healing process of this whole shindig. The swelling could go on for three to six months. Ugh. It took my stomach six months for the swelling to subside so I'm not sure why I'm so impatient after only two months, but I am. Anyway, I'm supposed to be elevating my leg above my heart for 15-20 minutes every couple of hours, taking some anti-inflammatory pills, and exercising the leg throughout the day. So, I increased my leg pillows from two to three, took some ibuprofen, and pulled out the stationary bike so that I could hop on it a couple times for every hour I was sitting.
I have to read while I bike or I get bored, so my new Dorie Greenspan baking book took a quick spin with me. This trifecta of leg therapy actually worked because there were times during the day that I could actually see the veins in my foot which until now have been buried under a layer of marshmallow and cotton candy. Or at least that's what I like to think is causing all the swelling in my foot.

Dinner with friends

Dinner at the brewery was fantastic fun, starting off with the hour and 20 minutes wait for a table! There were six of us dining together so we couldn't take just any old four seat table or booth. In the mean time the boys got themselves some drinks from the bar.
While waiting we met up with Sarah and David who were there for dinner too and ended up getting seated right around the corner from our table. Close enough for Sarah to poke both Chris and I in the butt with her fork. The dinner and company were great and we were glad to have been invited.
After dinner we did a little shopping at Target for some new undershirts for the boy and the new Cake CD for me. Such a big night for the likes of us!

Nothing exciting

It's been a ho-hum week hence why I haven't posted anything recently. Here's a short break down of my week;

Monday - Started our new time tracking forms at work. We have to track everything we do during the day in 15 minute increments for two weeks. It takes every ounce of willpower not to list sarcastic activities like 'surfing online porn'.
Tuesday - Bunko night! Thankfully it was in town so I didn't have to drive to the boonies of Magalia. I didn't win anything, but there wasn't anything worth winning - really.
Wednesday - My last Christmas present from my mom finally arrived in my hot little hands. A new cookbook to spend countless hours pouring over.
Thursday - It's my week to sing at church so I had singing practice Thursday night. Three new songs this week so practice was extra long (almost two hours) and I've got a lot of practicing to do.

Tonight we have a hot dinner date with two couples from work at Sierra Nevada. I'd almost venture to say that we have "friends". Crazy - who'da thunk it?

Wild and crazy night in Oroville

I had a fabulous evening living the high life with C. and her husband, Todd, in the 'ville tonight. I met them at Applebee's for dinner and then we caravaned over to the church where the concert was being held. We had to wait outside in the freezing cold for about 30 minutes before the doors opened, but once inside it wasn't long before the concert started.
Much to my surprise, we were out and home by 9:30 pm. Plenty late enough for crazy party animals such as ourselves!

Is it Friday yet?

After two months of non-stop holidays it's really hard to go back to full work weeks in January, but thankfully I wised up and took today off. That, and I had another treasury training session at the church this morning.
About a week ago I was handed over all of the church's financial records, a box of checks and the official treasury laptop with which to battle evil. Thankfully, a previous treasurer has taken me under her wing and is giving me much needed training. Sadly, I'd agreed to a 10:00 am meeting time, but could barely get myself out of bed, showered and there on time. Note to self - never make an appointment before noon. Pathetic.

It is cold today. Bitterly cold. It hasn't gotten over 39 degrees. Yesterday it was sunny and quasi-warm in p-town, but apparently the rest of the valley was socked in with fog all day. On my way home down the Skyway you could see the fog sitting down in the Centerville canyon.
Right around lookout point you just drove straight into a wall of fog. The local weatherman promises the weekend will be sunny so I'm just waiting it out.

Tonight I have a hot date with C. in the 'ville for a Matthew West Christian concert. We're meeting for dinner at Applebee's in Oroville at 4:45 (I know, I didn't know they had an Applebee's either!?) so that we can be at the church at 6:00 pm. Then we'll be raising the roof until midnight. Girls night - woot, woot!!

Coming to you in 3-D

We went to the movie theater again today for Chris' much beloved and high anticipated Tron. And since we were already going to be wasting two hours of our lives, why not waste it in 3-D?
I was a little disappointed that they weren't the old cheesy red and blue plastic lenses, but at least these ones actually fit back over your ears. Neither one of us had ever watched a 3-D movie before and it's pretty cool. Even some of the movie trailers were in 3-D, like the newest Pirates of the Caribbean movie. I hope this experience doesn't ruin us like our first time watching HD television where from that point forward nothing else was good enough. We'll be those snobs who buy the new 3-D televisions and ridicule those who watch ghetto 2-D television. Yeah, that's us.

A new year....

...a new war mini-series;
My mom got Chris 'The Pacific' for Christmas which he pulled out today for an all day marathon.

We did manage a short break to go see True Grit at the movie theater. I've never seen the original, as I'm not one for westerns, but it wasn't bad. Even though the best part was the fact that Chris scared the little 8 year old boy next to me by confronting him for being too loud. He insisted on slurping his soda, relentlessly shaking his bag of popcorn while throwing elbows at me, rocking in his chair making it creak, and wiping his hands for five minutes on a paper napkin that was somehow the loudest napkin we had ever heard. Finally Chris leaned over and said to him "are your hands clean enough yet??" which caused him to stop immediately and lean over to his mom/grandma in fear. From that point on he would look over at us whenever he drank or ate in fear we might accost him again. Nothing like starting a new year by tormenting small children!