teresa

This was a GTD weekend.  That is Getting Things Done, I added another word on to the end of that early when talking to Elliott although I will exclude that here, nothing horrible, although not totally appropriate.  Anyway we did lots.  Mostly little stuff.  Donate stuff.  Laundry.  New headlight, we did ourselves!  Oil change.  Tires rotated.  And it all added up.  Saturday and Sunday were basically taken up by those things with the exception of getting back on our running schedule of 7 miles on Sunday.

We also went to the grocery store and inspired we made a few great meals already this weekend.  First was our own rip off of the Arby’s roast beef sandwich.  It was pretty easy, a nice roll, roast beef thinly sliced from the deli counter and sauce from a web search which was basically ketchup, tobasco and spices.  Yum, we already had 2 each this weekend.

Next was a strawberry bonanza from better homes and gardens.  I made an appetizer slightly wrong with baguette, strawberries and brie goat cheese (the cheese was wrong,, it was supposed to be guevre or something similar).  I am not very good at broiling things, I get distracted easily and they burn, so the bread was a little toasty although quite good.  And then we made pulled pork with a strawberry bbq sauce.  We had that for dinner tonight and it was fabulous.

Today we also visited a Mission in San Bautista.  I think Elliott will post pictures shortly.

Off to finish this weekend with a little movie watching, my vote is for Benny & Joon, Elliott’s is for Sneakers…

We recently moved, down the street to a new apartment.  We moved to prove a point to our overeager rent charging apartment building and more so to save money.  We found an apartment offering a very similar one bedroom for almost $400 less a month than our rent.  And well during these tough economic times we are working to save money and reduce expenses.

The new place was also offering $1000 off the first months rent so we were able to work it out where we had an overlap in having the two places so we didn’t have to move in one crazy weekend or anything.  The new place is on the 3rd floor vs the 4th floor at the old place, although still the top floor which is nice.  And now we have a garage so we have a great place to store our bikes, rather than on the patio as we did at the old place.

So we started moving slowly about a load a night during the week.  Then I think we moved a few loads one weekend although we had some other stuff going on so couldn’t move much.  Then we eventually moved the rest of our stuff the following weekend.  And we were shocked that we were able to move everything with our Subaru Forester.  Even the couches fit in our car, well not length wise but we were still able to move the couches with just our car.  The mattress and box spring got tied to the top.  We didn’t do a great job of noting everytrip although I would say we own about 10-12 Subi’s worth of stuff.  We found pride in that.  Now we understand that if we ever move more than down the street or in the same town this car load by car load method may not be that effective.  Still though we are proud to keep our stuff quotient down.

So the new place is good.  We may very well have to move again in 11 months if they want to increase our rent back to pre recession days although that’s ok, we expect to still have the Subaru.

Dare I say we had an epic weekend.  Friday night… I think we even started the weekend by going to dinner Friday night, that is so long ago now I really had to think about it.  Although its true we went to one of our favorite places in Lafayette, called Chow.  I enjoyed a Dead Guy Ale, Elliott had a Heffe, we ate a noodle dish and a burger and we split the smartest pairing for dessert.  The ginger cake is amazing.  The cake is a soft version of a ginger bread man, perfect caky-ness.  Served with pumpkin ice cream or gelato with an intoxicating carmel sauce that includes something like amaretto or bourbon, I don’t know but it is the best mix of sweet and sour, definitely on the list for my last meal.

Do you have a last meal?  What you would request if you were given a choice as to your last meal to enjoy here on earth?  In high school my last meal for a long time was a roast beef sandwich from Arby’s, curly fries and a jamoca shake, yum!  Now I think I would go with something very similar to my Friday dinner although rather than the noodle dish I think I would have gotten the pasta dish I like. 

Saturday we got up early and got our 3 miles in.  Then we drove to Auburn to see our friends Carie and Josh who we haven’t seen since our wedding.  They have 2 little girls, ages 2 and 3 months and they are adorable! Maddie played a little shy for awhile although quickly warmed up to us.  Mel or I think also known Mo is still so little and I had a great time making faces at her!  We got to see there beautiful house, spend time catching up and we went to the zoo to ride the train although unfortunately it was closed.  We had a wonderful time, and it was so great to see Carie and Josh.

Then we met up with our friend Brad and his friend (becoming our friend too) Emily and had dinner in downtown Sacramento at a cute Mexican restaurant which was fun.  Then today we went kayaking in a lake/river with them which was lots of fun and we still managed to stay on track with our running schedule by running 7 miles this evening after we returned home.  The run was a bit slow, all my fault, my excuse is my stomach was bothering me a bit from the milk I had this morning, in case I wasn’t sure yes I am still lactose intolerant!

Tomorrow is another big day, Elliott is taking the car to Tahoe for a work site visit and as we are sharing one car I am going to bike to work, which is not a big deal, and then I am going to bike 11 miles to my haircut in Danville!  Which I am really looking forward to.  There is a great regional trail so I will be safe and I only feel bad that my head may be sweaty and my hair will be helmety for my haircut, although over all I am still looking forward to that.  Only thing is my computer is at home and needs to get to work.  Elliott told me if I was really “urban” I would strap it on my back and bike it to work.  That is true, although it is 12 pounds (may be a slight exaggeration) and I have 9 other things i need carry to work.  So he is going to drop it off at the office for me so I don’t need to lug it to work on my bike.  My bag is a rolly bag so I kind of think it would be funny to rig it up and tow it behind me although I think our IT guy may have a different opinion on that being a good idea.

creeped out onto our fourth floor patio.  I looked around and saw no one.  So I threw my first penny toward the fountain at the ground floor below and just out of reach of a toss.  I missed.  I threw the next one, this time I made my target with a kerplump unfortunately out of earshot.  About that time Elliott realized that I had stepped outside to dispose of our pennies in the only fashion that didn’t seem to be bad luck.  And as if transported back to elementary school he looked at me with frustration, a look that said, I want to play too.  I shared half of my pennies with him, which was only about six each.  I think he missed his first shot too.  I eventually found that holding the penny vertically and with a rolling motion was most efficient for making the distance without looking really winding up.  I didn’t make a wish with each beyond the wish for continued stumblings upon moments of simple joy.

I think Elliott thinks the penny should be abandoned by the government.  I think if soda machines at least excepted them that they would be good for something other than fountains.  I learned from someone not sure if was my parents or who that you shouldn’t throw away money, even if its a penny, I think it puts a hex on you based on your apparent frivolous nature.  So what should we do with our pennies?