Hard to believe, I know..

I've gone domestic. At least for today..

Even though I was only assigned mashed potatoes and corn for the Thanksgiving feast, I got ambitious and decided to make some Apple Toffee Tartlets. The recipe called for normal ingredients; apples, brown sugar, butter, flour, etc, as well as a couple out-of-the-norm ingredients; refrigerated pie crusts, toffee pieces. Well, turns out that since I NEVER cook or bake, I had a big grocery run to do. The good news is that I will have flour, sugar, brown sugar and powdered sugar for the rest of my single life. :) However, I couldn't find toffee pieces, so I spent a good 10 minutes this morning hammering (yes, with a hammer) Werther's Original candies into tiny crumbles. I bet the people downstairs really LOVED that. Oooh, and I even bought a rolling pin and one of those cool apple corer/slicer thingies. I sure am moving up in the cooking world! (But still much more comfortable working with tools and building things)

Anyway, I was pretty happy with the result! And even more happy that a couple of them broke apart so I could sample without guilt. YUM!!

Twilight movie - not the most exciting part of my weekend

During the time of the writers' strike, my roommates and I became obsessed with the Twilight books. I believe I have mentioned this in another post. When we found out that the first book would be made in to a movie, we were all thrilled and promised we'd all see it together. After what seemed like FOREVER, the movie finally was released this past weekend! I didn't have a ton of expectations going in to it, which was good because it did not even REMOTELY capture the greatness of the book. I won't go in to too many details just in case there are some reading that haven't seen the movie yet. I think the thing that saved it for me was the audience. Sitting in a packed theater with a bunch of squealing 12 year old girls was priceless. Every time a new male face came on the screen, it was clapping and screaming. They kept me laughing through the entire film. I almost wish I were that young again so I could think it was the greatest movie ever. :)

The rest of my weekend was good. I had an affair with my tv most of the time. I discovered I had On Demand, so I spent a good amount of time watching commercial-free tv. It was a good time. I also spent several hours on Saturday cleaning my bathroom, as the bathroom ceiling was FINALLY fixed on Friday! Hooray! Besides almost passing out in my tub from the chemicals, it was good to get it all spic and span. Saturday night included a viewing of the BYU vs Utah football game at a sports bar with a good group of people.

Sunday was probably the highlight of the weekend. Travis and I decided to go for a bike ride along the Mt Vernon trail, even though the temperature didn't warm up past the high 30's that day. It was sure cold!!! My fingers went all numb and I couldn't feel anything from mid-foot down to my toes. The greatest part was when we finally got back to Trav's vehicle and I was braking to stop my bike. I had unclipped my left foot and was about to set it down when for some reason I suddenly decided to put BOTH feet down.. As I started tipping to the right, I remembered that my right foot was still clipped in to that pedal. Too late. I had no choice but to let gravity take me down. How embarrassing! My first crash on my bike was just because of a dumb change of mind.... when I was completely stopped. Nothing cool like avoiding a squirrel at 20 mph or something. :) I was stunned once I found myself on the pavement, but Travis helped me up and actually asked me if I was ok without laughing. So props to him. Afterward though, we both had a good laugh about it. I wish I could have seen myself. I think people falling down is hilarious! Almost 2 hours later, I got full feeling back in my toes. Seriously. They were numb for that long. I think maybe the hot pizza helped.

Here's to more yummy hot food later this week!

Sad & Happy

Last Friday, November 7th, I recieved news that my Grandpa Blakemore died. This was quite a shock, as even though he had a stroke the week before, he didn't have any major side effects and his progress in recovery was very positive. I had even gotten a positive update from my dad on Thursday, the day before Grandpa died. Friday was hard. Luckily I was working from home, so I could be in the comfort and privacy of my own place. I cried off and on all day. My grandpa was a great man. So generous and happy and talented!

First pic was taken December 2007, second pic is from Christmas, 2005

My sisters and I decided to fly out together, so Tami drove up to Julie's from Hampton on Monday afternoon, and I drove up that night. Tuesday morning we headed to Baltimore to catch our flight to Seattle. My brothers, Matt and Todd flew in from St. Louis Tuesday night. Poor Matt doesn't have a lot of money right now, so I offered to give him the Southwest buddy pass that my friend's mom gave me a couple of months ago. I went to the Post Office Monday morning to overnight the ticket to him, only to be reminded that the next day, Tuesday November 11, was a holiday; Veteran's Day. So I had to pay extra (almost double) for holiday delivery, but was reassured that it would still get there by 3PM the next day.

It did not get there. Matt had to buy a ticket. Now I get to go take it up with the Post Office.

Annoying.

Luckily, we all still made it. All 5 of us kids were home with Mom and Dad. That hasn't happened in a LONG time. Just the immediate family without spouses or kids. Wednesday morning we all woke up and migrated from our beds to pile on Mom & Dad's bed, like we did when we were little. We had some laughs.

The funeral service was wonderful and highlighted a lot of Grandpa's accomplishments, talent and love for his family. I laughed and I cried. It was a great tribute to his life. After the services at the church, we drove to the cemetery where the sun came out shining bright with no rain in sight (a miracle for WA in November!). The National Guard honored his life and presented a flag to my Grandma. One service woman played Taps on the bugle and it was such a pure and beautiful sound.

The rest of the time in WA was spent enjoying the company of family, playing games, taking pictures and laughing a ton. I love my family. It is always a joyous occasion to see and be around them. Even in time of sorrow, we are able to be joyful.

Busy week

This past week sure was busy! First there was Halloween, which was so much fun! Didn't end up going to Kings Dominion, but I did the next best thing -- go trick-or-treating with the kids! They are so cute. I had a fun weekend with them and my 2 sisters. We had homemade chicken chili with biscuits for dinner, plenty of candy all weekend, and yummy ice cream. We played tennis for a couple of hours - as Saturday was beautiful! - and had fun on the wii. Yay for family!! (Photo upload isn't working right, so I had to embed the images from picasa web.. thus the small pics)

From Halloween '08

From Halloween '08

From Halloween '08

From Halloween '08

From Halloween '08

From Halloween '08

The other thing that captured my time this week was election day! I seriously had no idea who to vote for, as neither of the candidates appealed to me. About an hour before I headed to the polls to vote, I took an online quiz to see which candidate best matched up with my views. Turns out it was Bob Barr. What? Who the crap - ? So great. McCain and Obama came up further down the list. I just decided that whoever had the highest ranking in my quiz (between McCain and Obama) would get my vote. So that was that! I fully expected to wait in line for AT LEAST an hour, as I had heard all the horror stories of that morning. I grabbed my book, my mp3 player and some snacks and headed out the door.

Turned out I didn't need these items, as the man behind me was a chatty cathy. He first was commenting on how others looked: "Look at that lady's hair! Why would she wear it like that? It looks weird." Now, I must inform you on what I was wearing... I had not showered, so put on my green army-type hat, with my hair pulled back. No make-up. I had on the same color green, very baggy cargo pants, a brown zip-up hoodie over a white hooded thermal shirt, and a brown plaid scarf draped around my neck. I would have described myself as Tiny Tim-esque. And he's commenting on OTHER'S appearances to ME? Hmmmm.

Then: "What school do you go to?"

Me: I don't go to school

Dude: What? Do you want to be illiterate?

Me: I'm done with school. I just work

Dude: Really? When were you done?

Me: Um.... like 2002?

Dude: Oh, wow. So where do you work?

Me: In DC

Dude: Really? I hope you take public transportation.

Me: Yes, I do.

Dude: So I guess this isn't the first time you have voted?

Me: Nope. I look young, huh?

Dude: Yeah, you do.

Me: I'm 26.

Dude: You don't look like it!

Me in my head thinking: Yeah, well I would have pegged you as an illegal immigrant had you not been waiting in line to vote.

Turns out I waited in line for about 45 mins with the actually very entertaining Mr. Pedro, to take 30 seconds at the little booth to cast my ballot. Yay! I proudly wore my voting sticker all day.

LATER THAT NIGHT....

I'm finally drifting off to sleep (after a crazy trip to try to pay my rent! - another story) with my book slowly falling closed as my fingers relax, when I suddenly jolt all the way awake due to an outburst of cheering in my building. It was then that I realized Virginia went to Obama and thus he won the presidential election. No emotion from me besides relief that this mess is finally done, I turn my light out and go to sleep. What a day.