A trip home

Saturday my Mom and I packed up the car and headed back to our home state of Wisconsin.  From Indianapolis it is only a 4.5 hour drive.  Except for this time, this time everyone was going somewhere it seemed.  We made it in just under six hours.  Along the way we got to see how much the windmill farm had grown.  And it had grown quite a bit since the last trip up.

We stopped for brunch in Merriville at Bakers Square.  Then we hit Chicago hell.  Over 30 minutes of stop and go of 5 mph or less.  YUCK!

Check out that line of cars!

 It was a couple hours before we saw this.

The latter part of the day consisted of a visit with the Aunts and Uncles and cousins.  Then I headed to my Dad's.  Sunday I got to spend time with my two nieces, Ciera who just turned five, and Isabella who is 17 months old.  Check out these cuties!

Isabella

My Dad, aka Gramps, breaks out the guitar

Can I play too?

Ciera

Sunday night I went for dinner with my friend A.  I had an extra tasty pork tamale, enchilada style, fresh guacamole, and a virgin strawberry daiquiri.  YUM!  After some catching up I went back my Dad's to relax and enjoy a little me time with a book.  I slept in Monday.

Dad and I went to see the new "the Thing" movie, which I really enjoyed!  Then we headed over to my brother and sister-in-laws house to have dinner and visit some more with the girls.

 I love this picture.  Everyone is smiling and even Kazi (the little dog in the right corner) made it into the photo.  I am hiding behind Ciera a little bit, but that's okay, you can still see its me!

This one isn't so great.  I'm really hidden in this one and the baby isn't smiling.

Tuesday came too soon and we had to headed home.  But I really missed my guys, the hubby and the cat!  It was nice to sleep in my own bed, but I'm still tired from the trip.  Work was so not on my list of things I wanted to do today.  I think an early bedtime is in order.

Movie crazy

I'm going movie crazy here and my Mom's house.  I've watched a bunch since Tuesday.

The Thing

One of my favorites!

Devil

Eh... Don't bother.

Legion

Not great, the Prophecy was way better but i do so love apocalyptic movies.

The Final Destination

They really should have stopped making these

The Social Network

A must see and I love the soundtrack.  Trent Reznor is the man!

Pitch Black

Such a great sci-fi/thriller!

With the exception of The Social Network, it seems to be a suspense/thriller theme week.  I've seen all of these before except Devil and The Final Destination, but while I sand away at my homemade frame its perfect.

I've also been baking while I watch.  I've made two batches of flour free, sugar free breakfast cookies.  The first batch was too sweet, but still tasty.  I made that batch with almond meal, butter, Splenda, vanilla, an egg, cinnamon, apples, dried cranberries, and walnuts.  The cookies are high in protein and low in carbs and calories.  My goal is to have something quick and filling for breakfast.  But as I said the first batch was a little too sweet.

My second batch just came out of the oven.  This one has almond meal, flax meal, butter, vanilla, an egg, apples, dried cranberries, dried blueberries, and walnuts.  I forgot the cinnamon that I intended to use, oops.  I used less butter in this batch too.  This batch is a little bland but strangely addictive.  I think a little less flax meal and a little more almond meal for improved color and texture, and some cinnamon for extra flavor for my next batch.  Once I've got the winning version down I'll share that recipe on here.  I'll also attempt to figure out exactly how many calories, carbs, etc are in them.

My second class was today.  I've had a horrible sore throat all day so that made talking for over four hours lots of fun.  But otherwise the class went fine.  I sincerely hope I am not getting sick and this sore throat isn't the beginning of a cold.  My appointment with Dr. C. is next Monday!  I don't want to have to reschedule.  Who knows how long it would be before I could get in again?

Just to be on the safe side, I'm going to hit the sack early tonight, after chugging some OJ and popping a vitamin.  I'm kind of looking forward to sleep anyway.  Once again I was up before the sun today because of my class and the dog.  Tomorrow I don't start work until 10am which means I'm not getting my butt out of bed before 8am.  Thank goodness!

My Saturday and a couple chances to laugh at me

So, last night I went to bed super early (for me) at 11pm.  I really should have gone to bed earlier than that as I'm a big believer in a full eight hours but...  I didn't.  And of course I couldn't fall asleep.  Because...  Well... Don't laugh now.  I freaked myself out.  See I LOVE horror/thriller movies.  But I tend to have an over active imagination.  So last night when I flipped on the bedroom light I thought I saw a shadow out of the corner of my eye.  It was probably just my eyes adjusting to the change in light or a hint of my new bangs getting in my view but...

I instantly remembered this scene in Insidious that my friend O and I watched last month when she was visiting.  *Spoiler alert, don't read the rest of this paragraph if you haven't seen the movie and don't want me to give anything away.*  There is a part in the movie where a medium comes to the house and enters the room of a child in a coma, his name is Dalton.  She then stands there staring at the child whispering what she "sees" to an assistant who then translates it into a sketch.  When they show the sketch all you see is a dark shadowy form with violent red slashes for eyes and mouth malevolently lurking above Dalton's bed.

So as I lay in bed in the dark I kept picturing that shadow.  And hence, creeped myself out.  Its okay to laugh now.  I know I laughed at myself this morning!  I finally feel asleep just after midnight only to wake almost seven hours later to my alarm.  It wasn't even light outside yet, which always feels down right wrong.

I met my friend AW at a park in town just after eight am.  I was late because I lost my keys.  Only they weren't lost.  They were looped on my finger, only I was carrying so much and half asleep so I didn't realize that as I dug through my purse that they were ON MY OTHER HAND.  Its okay to laugh at me now too, I did.  I was also late because Carmel was throwing yet another festival or something in downtown and all the roads were blocked.  And the detour they were routing us to got me a little lost and way out of my way.

So I finally make it to the park and it is PERFECT.  About sixty degrees and foggy.  I love a refreshing hike where I'm not sweating my ass off in the heat, and fog is just pretty and cool.  I remember telling people when I was little that I was walking in a cloud when it was foggy.  I guess that enchantment never wore away.

I had a wonderfully relaxing and grounding hike full of AW and I attempting to be photographers, great conversations, and dumb jokes (mine, all mine.)

Example:
Me: Wow all of my pictures of that bunny are blurry.
AW: Oh I got a really good one here, its in focus and you can see those fuzzy things he was eating sticking out of his mouth on both sides.
Me: So you got the "bunny-money shot."

We both laughed, but even I admitted it was a bad joke!

Then I headed home to change and head back out again.  Only once I got home I decided to lay down for a bit and close my eyes.  I set an alarm for twenty minutes just in case I fell asleep, but my cat decided to be an ass-hole and every time I got close to dozing, he'd jump ON me and MEOW.  Of course said cat has been passed out in my lap all night, you don't see me jumping on him and yelling.  Rude cat.

Anyways, my Mom and I went to the mall next.  Let me tell you, I hate the mall.  I prefer to shop on-line, thank you very much.  But she needed a gift for a friend in Sweden.  She's going over on the 20th and I'll be dog-sitting for her while she's gone.  While we were at the mall we went into Lids and I got Tony a new Eagles hat in celebration of football starting back up (his celebration, I'm just planning all the movies I will watch while he takes over the TV and lives and breathes football,) and to replace the one he left in Vegas.  He loved it!

I also picked up a copy of Dead Island for the 360.  I'm watching Tony play it now.  I LOVE ZOMBIES!  In this one you on an island in Africa and there has been an outbreak, the goal: you have to survive! Its cool because so much of it is just a "pick up any object and go to town killing zombies" type of game.  I think we might have to get another copy so I can play with him, but we'll see...

After the mall, my Mom and I watched Megamind while we started our picture project.  We have decided to go through ALL of our photographs and separate out what's mine, what her's, and copy the ones that are ours.  She's planning on retiring in two years and getting the hell outta the cold mid-west so we're just thinking ahead.  Personally I think if I do have a baby before that time she may never leave, but we shall see...  Sorry for the ramble.  Hope you could follow my tired, got-up-to-early-with-to-little-sleep writing.  What did you do today?

Is it over already?

Is my three day weekend really over already?  Where did it go?  I really don't want to go back to work tomorrow.  Can I have one more day, please?  Anyways...  Hope everyone had a nice holiday weekend.  I'm finishing the night by watching an old horror movie, John Carpenter's Prince of Darkness, with the cat crashed out in my lap.  I know I've seen the movie, I remember the basic premise, but I can't remember a thing about what happens in the movie or if it was any good. I'll find out soon enough.  Back to my movie!

A quick word on Apes

Today Tony and I picked up my Mom and went for lunch at Ted's.  I had a new item on the menu.  The Avalon.  Bison burger with gruyere, bleu cheese, smoked bacon, garlic aioli, arugula, and caramelized onions on an onion roll.  (I had them hold the caramelized onions to avoid the reflux onions always seem to cause me.)  Talk about yum!  I hope they make it a permanent item!

After lunch we went to the theater to see Rise of the Planet of the Apes.  The reviews were good.  Even the woman who cut my hair liked it.  And while I can't say I didn't like it, I can say I left with an empty feeling.

The special effects were amazing, and it didn't seem like there were doing things just because they could.  Every special effect (except for one that really stands out in my mind) seems to move the story forward.  This is something a lot of movies forget, don't do cool special effects just because you can, make them a part of the story.  Make them bring something to the story.  Tony and I talk about all the movies we've seen where it seemed like they wrote the plot around the special effects, or they deviated from the story just to do some cool shit..

The acting was good.  The story was interesting.  It is sci-fi which is always a favorite of mine.  But I just never felt that "involved."  I never really felt a bond with any of the characters.  There were a few instances that didn't make a lot of sense, but over all it was a good movie.  Just not great.

On the way home from dropping my Mom off we stopped at Target and picked up a monster DVD rack to hold our extensive collection.  Tony sat on the floor and assembled while we watched Game of Thrones (on TIVO.)  I'm only on the second book, but Tony's just started the fifth and he loves the series.  The HBO show is really good too!

Our new DVD rack, all pretty and alphabetized.

Tomorrow we are heading back to my Mom's for a bbq.  Cheddarwurst on the grill with corn on the cob and potato salad.  Little mini eclairs for dessert.  I personally can't wait for the potato salad.  My Mom makes the BEST EVER.  Her secret is two fold: little red potatoes quartered (unpeeled) and the sauce part, mayo and sour cream with a generous amount of dill.  I kind of hate when she makes it because I can't seem to help myself.  The last time she sent me home with left overs they didn't last the night... hehe.