life – Page 5 – kristilynk

Small Town History

I have lived in the town of Weedville, AZ since the later part of the 1980’s. I had no idea I was living in Weedville until one day I posted a status on FaceBook and that status stated my comment was coming from Weedville, AZ.

What the heck is Weedville?? I thought I lived in Peoria. As I was giggling about Weedville..because let’s face it..Weedville is pretty funny….I googled Weedville, AZ. Apparently some Reverend (Reverend Weed) from Nebraska moved to the area in 1911 and named the town after himself.

http://www.azcentral.com/news/columns/articles/0427azhist0428.html

The link above is for any of you who may be interested in reading more..I’m not writing about Weedville today.. I am writing about Peoria. 🙂

As I said, I have lived here for over twenty years. Today was the fist time I have ever stopped at the Peoria Central School in Old Town Peoria. I have driven by this place many of many of times…thought about stopping but just never have. Today..I stopped.

Not only did I stop but I got out of the car and actually went in! 🙂

I was warmly greeted by the volunteers at this facility, “We are open but as you can see, we are in the process of redecorating, renovating and cleaning. You are more than welcome to come in and look around.”

The nice man noticed I was armed with a camera and proceeded to tell me, “and of course you are welcome to take pictures as well!”

I thanked him and proceeded to walk into the first building, this room will be set up as a replica of the old school rooms of the super early 1900’s.

Question..you see rule number 2? Well now look at rule number 3…How are you supposed to address the teacher if rule number 2 is NO TALKING? Yea, I was THAT kid. 😉

By the looks of these desks, I imagine in the early 1900’s they did not have the problem of child obesity that we have today. Maybe the answer to that current issue is to bring back the smaller desks!! Inappropriate? Well, I’ll save that discussion for another blog then. 😀

This is a piano from the late 1800’s – It looks as though it’s in GREAT condition! Chickering was in business from the late 1800’s and actually got out of business before The Great Depression, or so this website tells me anyway. http://www.antiquepianoshop.com/online-museum/chickering-brothers/

I’m not sure if classrooms were equipped with pianos in those days or not. Most likely not , the museum probably just has it because it’s old and cool and that’s fine but it did make me wonder so I asked uncle Google. I didn’t find anything on music in the classroom in the early 1900’s but I did stumble on this little note. Now, I’m not sure if it’s real or not but it’s cute and kind of neat to think about this little girl sitting at her little desk writing to students 100 years after her time.

http://www.dltk-kids.com/pioneer/school_in_the_1800.htm

To any of you teachers out there…this is a brilliant writing assignment for your students!

Yep, the classroom is even equipped with life size, creepy mannequin teachers. 🙂

This photo was hanging on the wall. I graduated from Peoria High School, the school is 91 years old! The people all look old so I don’t know if this was a graduating class or if it was the staff? I am leaning more towards guessing it is the graduating class..I don’t think in 1938 they would have had that many teachers in Peoria..

The next room looks like they might set it up as a home type setting. Here are some pictures of clothes drying..I like the long johns and the old time picture set up behind them.

I would imagine mom would wash, then squidgy the clothes before she hung them up to dry..

And just look at the art work on this sewing machine! The colors are so vibrant!

In this room was another piano or organ or?? I’m not sure..Anyone know what this is? Who makes it (I forgot to read it when I was actually there and I tried to zoom in on the picture but I cannot make out the lettering..)?

While I was in this room, one of the nice volunteer ladies came back to bring me a flyer for the Grand Re-opening happening November 2nd.

Here she is 😉

And see… there are the creepy, mannequin teachers in the back! Can you tell I am not a fan of mannequins?

After her and I talked for a bit, I walked to the Agriculture room. I didn’t get any pictures of this room because I was actually so engrossed with the stories I was hearing!

When I walked into the room there were two couples, about my parents age, in there. The ladies were sweeping and talking and dusting while the men sat and talked. Hmmm…. hah, I guess the old school mentality still applies here. 🙂

They told me stories of how long they have been in the area, what it looked like in their day and actually.. one of the ladies family had owned the farm property directly behind my house until about five years ago. It had been in her family for around fifty years!

Small Town..

Her and I walked together to the next building which was decorated with old old typewriters, stenographer machines, adding machines and in the corner was a glass display that scared me…In it was an old beauty shop set up..to be more precise it was a perm machine..yep..perm MACHINE..hairdressers would wrap ladies hair up in pin curls and cushions and hooked them up to ELECTRICITY…Check out this little video – about 40 seconds in the scary machine makes its grand entrance…. Sorry, in advance, for the poor quality but hey..I didn’t make it.

On that note..I will leave you for today! Until next time. Get out there everyone, learn, explore, talk to people!

Friday Food Frenzy…

Two posts in one day? Sorry but I couldn’t help myself. I tried to wait a few days but I have no self control..so enjoy anyway. 🙂

Last night, I was home alone on a stormy Friday and found myself perusing through Pinterest, like I normally do, to find my next meal to try.

I stumbled upon this little delight ( http://hotcookinmama1.blogspot.com/2013/08/baked-chicken-and-spinach-flautas.html) and decided to give it a whirl. I followed the instructions but instead of 16oz of chicken broth I used 14oz..it seems my grocer does not stock the 16oz sizes. It was either 14 or 32..14 won! Instead of garlic powder, I used five cloves of fresh garlic and instead of paprika, I opted for Cayenne pepper 😉 For the grated cheese option I used La Chona Quesadilla..PERFECT CHOICE, I might add.

I boiled three chicken breast, in the chicken broth and 2 cups of water, for about 10 minutes.

Shredded the chicken and placed it in a mixing bowl, added the cayenne pepper, salt and chili powder then set off to the side.

Using the same pot I used to boil the chicken, I took out the broth – all but 1/4 cup as instructed – and added four cups of freshly chopped spinach, fresh diced jalapeno and the five cloves of garlic.

Then I preheated the oven to 450 – my opinion – 450 may have been a bit too high – try 425 🙂

It took about 3 minutes for the spinach to wilt. Once complete I transferred the spinach mixture into the spiced up chicken.

How pretty is that?? 🙂

After I mixed it up nice mixed like…I took the burrito tortillas and cut them in 1/2 — I’m not sure why they are cut in half. I can see that a burrito tortilla is a little big for a flauta but couldn’t we have just used maybe a taco tortilla? Oh well, I did what I was told. 🙂

So tortillas cut in half and I was ready to start spooning the bowl contents onto the tortilla.

Take note: Notice I put the mixture on the rounded side..don’t do that..place the mixture on the long straight side. This was the only one I messed up but by this time my fingers were greasy and I didn’t want to get any of it on the camera and I didn’t want to wash my hands.

Bake for 10 minutes each side. That’s it!

This picture is before they were baked.

Now…who’s going to come over and clean my kitchen?? 🙂

A strange concert experience….

A friend of mine invited me to go with her to watch the mid 1980’s British Rock group, The Cult, play at the Celebrity Theater in Phoenix this past Thursday night. Normally, I would not go to a concert on a “school” night nor would I pay an outrageous amount of money to see The Cult play…BUT..I didn’t have to work on Friday AND my friend had a hook up so we were able to buy tickets for only ten dollars opposed to the sixty to eighty dollars a seat the venue was asking!

I picked Denise up at six and then went to her friend Bubba’s house, he was coming with us. I had never met Bubba before so introductions were done and before we left he wanted to show me The Scottsdale Beer Museum. Basically, it is a wall in his garage dedicated to beer ~ of all the beers, in all the world, Bubba’s favorite is Pabst Blue Ribbon ~ Yes, you read what I wrote ~ Pabst Blue Ribbon. He has a little shrine specifically for all things PBR. There is not much more I can write about the “beer museum” so if this type of thing interests you…you can read more here: http://blogs.phoenixnewtimes.com/jackalope/2011/03/bradford_whickers_beer_can_and.php

Moving on, we piled into the Jetta and rolled on out. When we pulled into the parking lot of the Celebrity Theater..there were maybe ten cars?? Confused, we walked up to the box office to get our tickets and figure out what the deal was. Well, turns out we were like two hours early. What to do, what to do?

Bubba has a friend who works with The Papago Brewing Company in Scottsdale where there are beers o’ plenty and Bubba tells us the pizza is amazing.

We were greeted by this fella:

I took this picture off of their website: http://www.papagobrewing.com

We ordered a T-Rex pizza ~ Pepperoni, sausage, bacon, ham, red sauce, and mozzarella on super thin crust..DELISH! I was driving so I was not able to over indulge in the beer but I was able to buy a half pint of the Orange Blossom Ale and it was oh so good!

I don’t think I have been able to get a half pint anywhere? It’s the cutest little thing and it made my mouth happy!

We ate, drank and scootched back to the concert event.

We should have stayed at the brewery a little longer. I have no idea where the promoters found this group but the opening act was so boring! Isn’t the opening act to be a lively group – you know – to get the old people in the audience pumped up for the main event? I was and still am so confused as to why this trio was able to go on tour with The Cult? I will let you decide for yourself..here’s their Facebook page: https://www.facebook.com/pages/WHITE-HILLS/90476409450

I actually could not sit in my seat for another song ~ Thoroughly confused we three went outside. Denise was just as confused as I was but Bubba?..He may have been the only one in the theater who actually liked them.. The bass was droning and never ending – repeating the same line over and over..blahhhh I’m becoming irritated right now just remembering so let’s move on. 🙂

The Cult was supposed to have started their set at nine-forty…supposed to have…they didn’t come out until ten-twenty. I have never seen The Cult live and I have been told by many “how great they are live”…I was not impressed. It was obvious something was not right.. the performance of the entire band lacked energy and you could feel bad vibes emulating from the stage. I made up this scenario in my head, which is probably not far from the truth:

I think..there were sound issues or equipment issues or maybe it was Ian Astbury wasn’t provided with the exact eyeliner color he requested. “I TOLD you I needed black ONYX..this is not Black ONYX…this is Black NOIR..I am NOT going on stage with this shit, you MORON!”

I don’t even remember what song they started with but after the fist song, Ian Astbury ripped up the set list from the stage floor, crumbled it up and threw it..yes..threw it at the sound guy. I bet the sound guy wrote the set list in blue ink and had to re-write it in black onyx.

Fervently, the sound guy did what he was told, jumped on stage to re-tape the new set list to the floor and in the process..he bumped into Ian Astbury ~ ..no doubt that was an embarrassing moment for the “rock star”.

I sat through the entire first half of the set fascinated with what was going on up there…it was the most bizarre scene I have ever witnessed on the stage of a professional, once accomplished, touring band.

Meanwhile, Denise and I had noticed Bubba has been gone quite a while. I asked, “Where is Bubba”? Denise replied, “He went to the bathroom but that was kind of a long time ago.”

Hmm, ok.

Bubba came back and after a few minutes says, “I found some seats that are closer..wanna go”? SURE! We followed and proceeded downstairs to the front row. 🙂 Yay for Bubba!

The energy on the stage was a little better this second half ~ not much better ~ but they were starting to get into the groove a little. I know it didnt have anything to do with the eyeliner fiasco because Ian was still wearing his sunglasses. 🙂

Oh, so yes, we were in the front row – just behind the sound guy – I felt so bad for this man! Through this second half of the set, it was the guitar player who started in on berating him. What made the situation all the more sad was..even through getting a set list thrown at him, being screamed at by Ian and then continued yelling from the guitar player..this poor sound guy was singing along to the songs of The Cult. Broke my heart for a minute.

I had a great time with my friends and the event was..fascinating.. but I am pretty sure I will not go see The Cult live again.

Whisked away…

If you read my last post, you know that my husband is getting ready to embark on a pretty extensive European tour with his band mates. His departure date is fast approaching..he flies out this coming Tuesday..September 3rd.

With all of the preparations entailed in putting this tour together, it’s been a tough couple of months for us both.

Making sure all the travel arrangements have been made, hotels overseas booked, merchandise..designed, printed, purchased and shipped, venues booked (of course venues and hotels being setup by their booking agent overseas), videos produced, interviews completed…you get the picture. On top of that..Jason and his electrical contracting partner had to complete jobs, hire an apprentice and make sure all is good on that front.

Amidst all of this..my sweet..thoughtful guy..took the time to book a romantical night for just him and me.

He had told me, a week or so ago, to make sure I kept my night open for Saturday the 31st. I tried to get the secret out of my daughter but she stood her ground and wouldn’t give in to the pressures of my prying.

Around 1600 hours on Saturday, Jason says, “O.K., let’s go..pack a bag. Throw in a swimsuit, maybe a long sleeve shirt and what you’re wearing is perfect.”

I followed instructions and soon enough we were en-route on our secret field trip!

A few miles from home Jason says, “It’s nothing too extravagant but I booked a room for us at The Pointe Hilton at Tapatio Cliffs. I wanted to spend time with you before I leave. We could have done so at home but this takes us out of our element and I thought this would be nice.”

How sad is it that my second thought ~ of which I voiced aloud ~ was, “OH!! The room will have air conditioning!”

We have a leak in the refrigerant line of our central air conditioning unit at the house and have been having to turn it off and on periodically because it keeps freezing up. It’s a bit miserable, especially..in the middle of summer in Arizona.

Someone was set to come look at it on Sunday, finally!

Notice I said “second thought”..my first thought was, “How awesomely sweet is he”!

The drive was quick ~ the hotel is only about a fifteen minute drive from home, bonus! An escape from reality so close to home!

Surprisingly…I did not take but three pictures and those three pictures are on my cell phone and I don’t feel like connecting the phone to the laptop to export them and post.

Yes, I am that lazy today. 😀

You will have to make do with the photos I snagged off the internet.

Even such a short distance from home, you can see how this getaway spot is nestled all snug like in the mountains of the Phoenician desert.

Driving through the resort to get to the registration office was a little challenging. The hills are pretty steep and there were so many people walking and so many cars parked off to the side of the narrow roads. We managed, we checked in and were off to our quiet spot higher up on the hill.

I cannot even imagine driving a stick shift through this hotel road set up! Being the hotel was packed ~ most likely booked to capacity ~ there were not many spaces left for parking but we lucked out and found a spot right below our third floor room!

As soon as we opened the door a burst of ice cold air was the first thing we noticed. The thermostat read 69 degrees! Coming in from the 30% humidity of 110 degree temps outside we were more than happy to be greeted this way. 😀

After getting settled we changed and took a super short walk to the secluded Sunset Pool area.

This was a tiny little pool area equipped with a tiny little pool and a tiny little hot tub.

Perfect! We had the place to ourselves! I am not sure how many pools this establishment has but I am certain it is more than six. The main pool, after our many stays here, I have never been to. I hear the pools are huge, surrounded by man made waterfalls and packed with people.

A lot of locals make a day trip to the pool, I think you can pay at hotel registration for day passes. I bet it makes for a perfect family funday on the weekends. For us? Not so much, we like to stay in the rooms close to the smaller less crowded pool areas.

The water was luke warm..not very refreshing..but after a few minutes..it was better than nothing and when I stood up there was just enough of a breeze to genuinely cool me off. We floated around and talked for about an hour or so then decided it was time to go to dinner.

The draw back of this was..we both wanted sushi which meant we would have to go back into the car and drive about two miles and yes…lose are prime parking space.

It was so worth it though, we found a little hole in the wall sushi restaurant called “Wild Tuna”. The place is a small, family owned business with deep blue walls decorated appropriately with fish paintings and accented in my favorite shade of green.

We ordered green mussels, a philly roll, tuna rolls, yellowtail sashimi and unagi. The prices were totally reasonable but the rolls could have been bigger 🙂

I will admit, it was all so good but the yellowtail stole the show. It was abolutely amazing!

Bellies full, we set off to the store to grab some Perrier, a bottle of wine and some chocolate.

We lucked out, yet again, and scored a parking spot close to our room. Again, I will remind you, the hills are so steep trying to get out the car with the car door smashing me in the face was a chore.

We both decided…we could never live in San Francisco 🙂

Back in the ice cold room, YAY, Jason said, “I’m going to the ice machine so we can put the wine on ice”.

I, having watched way to many scary movies, gave him a sideways glance of fear that he won’t come back simply said, “O.K”.

He came back safely within in two minutes, phew! He did say the area where the ice bin was located was really creepy – it was in a corner and dark and there was a hallway looking structure that went back about ten feet…and it was also dark.

Once the wine had chilled, we poured some into an empty can of Perrier (yes…I know..pretty classy, right?) In our defense..we wanted wine to sip while we were relaxing under the stars in the hot tub..so don’t judge. I thought it was pretty clever.

I turned the dial for the hot tub timer as far as it would turn. Fifteen minutes. I thought to myself, “Fifteen minutes? That’s really not very long”

We eased into the HOT tub and began to relax, sip wine and chat. Mid conversation I realize Jasons forehead is beginning to bead up with sweat and started to giggle at him..literally a minute later I started feeling drips of my own sweat coursing down my forehead. It was time to get out.

I told Jason my earlier thought of the fifteen minute timer not being very long and said, “What do you think? We’ve been in here maybe ten minutes?” He laughed and said, ” I think only five”. We got out and jumped into the much cooler pool ~ before I got in though, I checked the timer..sure enough, we were only in there for five minutes!

Fingers and toes all pruned up, we decided to get out and dry off. While we were drying..off in the distance we noticed a gorgeous display of fireworks ~ it was neat to see from high atop the mountainside. I think the event was for a local water park (which is about 13 miles away) ~ I am pretty sure this is the end of the water park season so they are to have fireworks through Labor Day.

The cycle of pool, shower, dinner, pool, hot tub, shower and snack was ideal for stress free evening.

Waking up in the cool, dark room to the smell of coffee brewing at 0830 was the icing on the cake. 🙂

We started packing up around 1030 and headed to a local diner for breakfast. I was actually surprised at the, Mel’s Diner feel of a, restaurants menu. I figured, our options to be eggs and bacon or eggs and bacon. I had a Spinach Feta Omelette and Jason had Eggs Benedict. Not superb but good enough.

After breakfast, Jason paid the lady and we were on our way…back to reality.

What I took away from this little staycation was that even after twenty-five years of each other ~ this guy is still so thoughtful and I hope I never take that for granted.

I will leave you with this quote,

“Love is the sum of our choices, the strength of our commitments, the ties that bind us together.”
― Emily Giffin

Feeling Pretty Fortunate….

Last I wrote, I had big plans to win the lottery. That didn’t pan out so back to drawing board. Maybe next time, eh?

In the meantime, I am enjoying the life I have.

After an excruciating day at the office, I drove to my Aunts house to celebrate my grandmas 91st birthday.

Now over the years I have not proven to be the best granddaughter, it is most certainly not because I don’t love her or think about her on a daily basis. There are a few reasons – or excuses – whatever you want to call them..I call them unacceptable but they are what they are right?

I am going to take you into the way back machine for a few…

My dad was a military man – he served 20 years in the US Navy, which for our family of four (mom, dad, sister and me) meant living in San Diego for the first decade and a half of my life. The rest of our family (grandparents, aunts, uncles and cousins) all lived in Arizona and we only were able to visit with them maybe once a year? Thinking about it now, I realize, growing up without extended family in my life from a very young age into teenage years is a sad thing. In the younger years, you really don’t understand the value of family and by the time you reach your teenage years…let’s face it..who really wants to hang out with the extended family when you could be hanging out with your friends?

I do have to say…I was never bored at Grandmas house, or my Aunts for that matter. There was always something to do..weather it be playing with Grandmas elaborate Barbie collection or smelling her vast collection of perfume bottles or playing with the neighborhood kids at the Aunts house. Ok, I am going to retract my statement…I loved going to Grandmas house…

It was only until my dad lost his harsh battle with lung cancer that I distanced myself again from Grandma. To be honest, I couldn’t bear to look into her eyes..all I saw was my dad. It was YEARS…about five years and a half years to be more precise…before I finally told myself..”enough is enough!! Call your Grandma…call your Aunt”! And I did. I invited them over for Christmas Eve and it was tough but I am so glad I did. We all enjoyed ourselves – catching up and eating and just being together..I felt good.

As glad as I was to have reconnected..over the years it still proves difficult but not because I am reminded of dad but more so because I just get caught up in MY daily life, you know…working and traveling and relaxing when I’m not running around.

I’m not sure what the right words are..becoming complacent? Maybe taking for granted the fact that I think they will always be there no matter what? Anyway, you get the idea…I am trying to be better. I am trying to keep the connection and I will continue to try!

This brings me to current day 🙂

Today…is my Grandmas 91st birthday. I am feeling so fortunate to have been able to have celebrated this amazing milestone with her. Not many people can say they were able to sit and have pizza, hot wings and cake with their Grandma on her NINETY FIRST BIRTHDAY.

Another bonus? My nineteen year old daughter met me there! Really? On a Friday evening..my thoughtful daughter chose to spend time with her great Grandma, her mom, her great Aunt and her second cousin.

I’ll say it again…I am feeling pretty fortunate tonight. 😀

A step away from reality…

I am going to step away from reality for a few. Bear with me because I am typing these thoughts and ideas as they come along – with the exception of a few ideas I have had in mind for many years.

Tonight is the night someone in the United States will become FOUR HUNDRED AND TWENTY FIVE MILLION DOLLARS richer…

I don’t typically play the lottery but let me tell you..I did a little homework yesterday and this afternoon and my goal was to pick those winning numbers!

I got online and asked Uncle Google what my lucky numbers (astrologically) are for the month of August. Of course I didn;t trust just one website so I perused through three of them – wrote down an ample amount of numbers I felt good with and moved on to the next plan of action….

To find out which zip codes around my town had sold the most winning numbers. At lunch time I stopped at a store in one of the three zip codes I jotted down and used some of the numbers astrology tells me are lucky this month. On my way home I stopped at another store in one of the zip codes, used more of the “lucky” numbers and started my drive to the last lottery retailer on my list.

Then it occurred to me…DUH… I picked all of these zip codes in which winning numbers were prevalent and chose my own numbers?? I think I was supposed to let the machine pick the numbers..I laughed at myself and continued on my way. 🙂

The last stop was at the grocery store right across the street from my home – I bought one ticket with numbers the stars chose for me and I let the computer pick the other numbers…

It takes me a little bit in life but I eventually catch on to things 😀

So, here I sit..planning my day tomorrow. I will wake up, have a cup of coffee look at the numbers from tonights drawing and call in to work to let them know I will not be coming to work…forever.

I will contact the Lottery and let them no, “I’m the lucky winner”! I’m not sure what happens next or how long it will take to receive my lump sum of doe – ray – me but what I will do with it as soon as I can is as follows:

I have a co-worker who is going through chemo and I would like to figure out how to, anonymously, deposit as much cash into her account as I can without her getting hit too hard with taxes so she doesn’t have to worry about bills while she is going through her own personal hell. Next on the list is my mom, I would pay her house off so she doesn’t have to work any more and put enough money in her account so she is more than comfortable. I’d like to see her be able to do whatever in the world she has always wanted to do.

Next up..all of our debt, which is actually not as much as a typical American but we have the typical stuff – mortgage would be the first to be gone!

The parent in-laws would be next in line and then the siblings, you know…gotta take care of those who have taken care of us!

After everyone has been taken care of…it’s time to plan an extensive tour of this glorious earth…In this moment I honestly don’t know where I would go first – I have so many destinations in mind. The logical thing to do may be to start here in the US – I have been to more places outside of the states than I have here and I do have a little list of places I need to experience right here in the good ole U S of A.

My ideas above are just the beginning…I see a lot of travel, volunteer work and taking care of society in my future being a multimillionaire. 😉

What would you do with your millions? I wanna know!

Today is my Birthday!

WOW.. What a day. Today is my birthday and I took the day off work, after all…it is my very own personal holiday!

I was looking forward to sleeping in but alas — that did not happen. I actually woke up at 0530…45 minute before I normally wake up on a weekday.

All was good though, there was coffee waiting for me because the hubs had to get up early to go to work 🙂

I had coffee, made myself steak and eggs for breakfast, played around on the computer for a while and watched a movie.

I watched ” 6 Souls” – Julianne Moore is the the big star in this, what I thought to be, psychological thriller. It was good enough but turned out slightly different than I thought.

It was a little bit slow and was about a father daughter psychiatrist team BUT the daughter had faith in God but the father did not. Turns out the patient was killing and taking the souls of people who had lost their faith in God along their way. I liked the movie but again..I’m not that huge of a fan of God and Devil thriller stories and like I said…it was slow.

After the movie, I showered and changed and me and my favorite daughter, Kiah, went to lunch at the Pita Jungle. I had a Chicken Pesto pita pizza and she ordered the Curry Salad.

Bad move on her part.. the curry salad was grody! She took a bite and the look on her face said it all – I shouldn’t have tried it but for giggles I did and….her taste buds were accurate..I was disgusting. The thing is…we love us some curry BUT…we think of curry and of course we think Thai curry — we are not fans of Indian curry — and that is exactly what it was.

The waitress was good enough to allow Kiah to “trade” her meal in for something she liked better. 😉

After lunch, I went to the day spa where I received a wonderful Swedish massage and scalp treatment. My favorite parts of this pampering session were the foot/ankle massage and the scalp massage. Even though I had already showered..,made my hair pretty and she said, “OK, now I am going to drizzle coconut oil along your hairline”. That bummed me out for a split second because now I would most certainly have to go home and shower to wash my hair AGAIN…but it felt amazing so I allowed her to proceed. 🙂

By the time I got home it was already 15:00 – my mom came over for a short visit and the hubs and I watched the US BEAT COSTA RICA in the Concacaf match while having dinner. Dinner was simple but delicious. We had a homemade chef salad. Dessert was dark chocolate coconut paired with a 2000 Principe Alfonso Reservera Privada. I swear, that bottle of wine was so delightful. I literally wanted to jump in and sniff my way out!

I thought…the wine may be bad because the cork was so dark but I was happily proven wrong!

Tonight…the mega millions is to be drawn! My good friends bought me a few tickets for my birthday – how COOL would that be to win..the mega pot…on my birthday???

It’s been a great day – and I will continue the greatness come Friday as I head out to San Diego to visit with a couple of other AMAZING friends 😉

Until then!!

Kristilynk

Spring Ahead!!

I have the Spring Fever and it’s technically not even Spring yet! The weather, so far in 2013, has been crazy here in the southwest state of Arizona…Last week it snowed in the valley and this week it’s in the 90’s!!!!

I do prefer the warmness over the cold but anything over 80 makes me sweat…and I don’t really like to sweat. Unless I am in a sweaty hot yoga class, then it’s ok..it’s purposeful, ya know?

It’s the middle of March and I am so ready to take a few days off work, really a few months but who am I kidding…THAT’s not going to happen 😉

Next week is the hubs and my anniversary this year we will celebrate with friends and family..We will be taking a couple days off to take a drive to San Diego to visit with our good friends Shane and Kim and little miss Kaili ANDDDDDDD we get to visit with OUR baby girl Miss Kiah Bree!! I haven’t seen her stinkin’ face in almost two months and I can not wait to see her… I am so proud of her and her beautiful self !!

I hope to have great stories to write when we come home 🙂

In the meantime, this weekend will be spent doing yoga, pulling weeds, doing laundry and getting some much needed vitamin D..via the SUN! Saturday night will be filled with live music and photography..Sunday…I will let you know on Monday!!

Enjoy life everyone ~ it goes by too fast not too!!

To write..or not to write..

Five-thirty in the morning, semi sleeping actually envisioning myself sweeping sections of the floors downstairs and then mopping them. On a Sunday? This is a little ridiculous but I got out of bed, made coffee and plopped myself in front of the television. I found myself watching a program on PBS called the “GED Connection” todays topic was on writing. I became inspired and here it is an hour and fifteen minutes and a giant cup of coffee later and I am still on the couch…wanting to write.

One of the points made in this program that I hope to never forget is…If you have something in mind – get it out – don’t worry about grammar, don’t worry about how you’re going to start, don’t worry about complete sentences. Too many times writers confuse their roll in the creative process of writing with that of the editor. Of course you cannot publish a story or book full of run on sentences or a grammatical nightmare but you can get the complete product down on “paper” and edited it later. The sad part is ther have been many times I have had something in my head that I wanted to get out – I would sit at the computer and start writing only to quit fifteen minutes later because I couldn’t come up with the perfect introduction.

From here on out, I am making a promise to myself and will make a conscience effort to spit out my thoughts as they form in my head. It may be difficult for my readers out there, I warn you. Expressing myself tends be a bit more difficult when there are SOOOO many random thoughts bouncing around in my head!

Boring?? Maybe to some…

Some might say my weekend was “boring”. What is boring? To me, nothing I do is boring – there are no boring moments, it’s all in how you look at those….let’s call them…uneventful, moments.
The hubs was feeling under the weather, down with a lovely little chest cold.
Friday afternoon..after work, I drove straight to Trader Joes to grab something quick to whip up for dinner and of course a bottle of wine. 🙂 Yes, I admit it..I am a wino.
In the wine section, there behind a portable wine tasting cart, (hmm, I’ve never seen that before) was a man who asked me if I needed any help. I had been eyeballing a couple of wines in the Spanish wine section. Since my trip to Spain, I fancy Spanish wines the most. I told the man, yes, I hoped he could help me. I found a super cheap (4.99) bottle of wine from Tempernillo and I wondered if he knew anything about it or had he ever tried it, what were his thoughts?
He had never tried but he did go to his handy dandy wine booklet and read to me the process and we found the grapes are from the Rioja valley – I love a good Rioja so I told him..Sold, thanks for your help!

It took me less time to select an easy dinner for the night. I picked up a couple of pouches of beef bolognese ravioli and coupled it with a beef bolognese red sauce. I know, I know, maybe one day I will make my own raviolis..but for that night…it was already six p.m by the time I got home. I don’t know how long it takes to make home made raviolis but certainly it would take more time than I was willing to wait for dinner to be served. Besides, the pre-made ones from Trader Joes are actually pretty tasty and in less than 15 minutes we were ready to eat.

The wine I selected wasn’t horrible but..it wasn’t great either. I don’t think I will be buying another bottle.

The rest of Friday night was spent vegetating on the couch watching movies, I honestly don’t remember which movies we watched nor what time it was we fell asleep.

It must have been pretty early though because I woke up at six am ready for coffee and a jaunt to the grocery store. I was excited to try out a new recipe my sister in law told me about (check out her blog page dutch13@wordpress.com ) She gave me the link to the egg salad recipe but I didn’t use that one – I lost it so I had to google another one. It called for eggs, avocado, radishes, green onion and mayo. I threw in cilantro as well because — everything is better with cilantro! I liked the mix but I think I was expecting it to be a little more flavorful..Jason really enjoyed it..Phew! He is always so skeptical at trying “my” new dishes, so I was glad to know his mouth and belly were happy! 😀

The remainder of the day we watched movies..Comdey Central was the movie channel for the day – I think we may have watched four or five movies..Saving Silverman (an old one but neither J nor I had actually seen the movie all the way through before), Get him to the Greek..(always a funny one..I’m pretty sure we have both seen it now at least three times) and I can’t remember the other two.

On the menu for dinner that evening was Turkey burgers..Our friends Shane turned us on to this awesomeness. One lb. of Turkey, one packet of onion soup mix, a tub of feta cheese and one egg (ya know..to make all that other stuff stick). Jason was still not feeling well so grilling the burgers was not an option – nope, I don’t know how to cook on a grill – I broiled them in the oven on high for seven minutes on each side…I also learned how to make corn on the cob. That’s right, I had never boiled corn on the cob before Saturday night. It was all delicious – I think I could eat those burgers every day – I don’t think my taste buds would ever tire of the taste.

Full bellies from a day of nothing but eating and tele watching..it was another night of early to bed!