It's REAL Friday!!!

lmcooper86

Goooood morning pretty ladies!

Friday! Finally!

Our office party was fun last night! We had our gift grab where movie gift cards and a super snuggly blanket kept getting stolen and people were getting pissed off and it was hilarious. I walked out with 2 cookbooks so I was pleased! Dinner and the improv show were both fun and I was happy to let work buy me a few ceasars!

This weekend is buuuuuuuuusyyyyyyyyyyy. I am going to want another weekend after Sunday!

I have to go up to FI's tonight, since we have so much to do tomorrow and want to get an early start right after he has hockey. So I'm skipping dinner with his family to get myself pulled together after work and then I'll head up to his place and hopefully do some baking this evening before bed.

Tomorrow morning FI has hockey at a stupidly early hour, but that's his problem as I will be snuggled up in bed. Once he gets home we have to drive up to my cottage to pick up a couple things that we need for the wedding; they got snow earlier this week but they aren't supposed to get any today or tomorrow so I'm hoping the drive won't be bad. Then we're stopping at the mall on our way home (on a Saturday, ugh) to knock out the Christmas shopping for FI's family. We have a list, we know exactly where we're going, and I am hoping that it won't be too painful! I may reward myself with a hot chocolate (or get one in advance to stay sane). We MIGHT go to an open house for a place that we found recently, but we're concerned that they've priced it low to start a bidding war and it's already near the top of our budget so I don't know if there's much point. I don't want to really like it and then have absolutely no change of getting it! Once we're done our running around it will be back to FI's so I can keep baking.

Then Sunday we have church, and then FI will drive me straight to the subway so I can get home in time for the Christmas party at my grandma's retirement home. Once that's done my parents and sister are driving me back up to FI's church and staying for their Christmas music night. After the music night my family is going over to the FIL's place for coffee and cookies, since they haven't seen each other for a while.

And then somehow I have to pull myself out of bed and go to work on Monday

What's the plan for everyone else's weekend?

KeptInStitches

Woo Friday and happy wedding day @buddysmom80!

@lmcooper86, you could go anyway if it's within your budget. Who knows, maybe it will have some major flaw that will take it out of consideration. We looked at one place that we thought would be ok, then learned we literally had to jump off the stairs to get to the laundry.

My weekend is going to be really quiet. Intentionally so. I'll be working Job #2 - knitting all weekend long. I need to finish my mom's scarf. It's hit the point where no matter how much I knit it doesn't seem to be getting longer. Then I have a baby blanket to make for FI's cousin who is due next month (why does no one tell me these things in advance?). Then I'm hoping to start R&D on projects for next year's show. Or make dishcloths as I have cones of cotton staring me in the face.

Tonight FI has gaming for the last Friday this year - end of the semester is coming! Otherwise he's going to be working around the house.

And I'm in week 2 of the playoffs for our fantasy league, having knocked off my opponent last weekend (and sent along the message that the NFC South sends its regards). I'm probably going to lose this weekend though because I'm hitching my playoff hopes to the Johnny Football wagon train. It won't end well.

[Deleted User]

@lmcooper86 - you have a BUSY weekend planned, but it sounds like a lot of fun.  maybe Christmas shopping won't be so bad!

@buddysmom80 - happy wedding dayyyyyy!!!!

I meant to get up early this morning to do my PIYO workout, but H and I had quality time together instead.  good news, today I'm off at 11:30.  I'm going to get a manicure, and then head home to do some make-up PIYO (I'll have to be very, very gentle with my hands...  so probably no yoga gloves!)  the house is picked up, cookies are baked, so I just need to wipe down the counters and clean the front door and vacuum right before everyone comes over.  and then tonight, COOKIE SWAP!

tomorrow we are dropping my car off early (8 AM) to get a tire replaced/fixed and an alignment done.  we'll probably go grab some breakfast and then we have a bunch of errands to run.  Christmas dress rehearsal at church at 2 and then I have to get all gussied up for H's company holiday party.  it's pretty fancy, so I'm SURE there will be some good food, right??

Sunday morning we have regular church, lunch at my mom's, and then Christmas play that evening.  I need to squeeze a nap in there somewhere, too.

Dignity100

@Buddysmom80 - Happy Wedding Day!!  I can't wait to see your pictures!!!!!!!

@Imcooper86 - Holy cow that sounds like a busy weekend!!!  We got these 2 super soft blankets from Sam's Club... it started off with 1 and we wanted to get a few more for us and for gifts.  When we went back we only found 1, it was hidden, so we bought it and kept it for ourselves!!

@KeptInStitches - Have you ever posted pictures of the knitting/crafting you do?  I can't remember every seeing them.  I can give you my projected spoiler alert on Johnny Football - FIL bought his jersey, whenever he buys somebody's jersey they do not play well or they get traded right away (we've all told him to stop buying jerseys).

Tonight I work late (yuck).  I'm going to try to leave a little early (better get my ass in gear) so I can pick up H some expresso for his Xmas gift.

Tomorrow:  We have my work's Christmas party.  They raffle some prizes off - I need to buy more tickets (the $$ goes to 3 local charities, so it's not a big deal if I don't win); I'm after a Westin Heavenly Bed - I haven't had a new bed (mattress/box springs) for 15 years and well... I think I'm due.  I bought a 2 inch thick memory foam topper which helps, but let's be honest, the bed is old and is past it's prime.  I don't expect to win, I never win anything - just dreaming.

We might drive past a few houses that I found online that I like just to kind of figure out what we can get for different price ranges.  We're not actively looking, though if the perfect house/property showed up we might act on it.  There's one house that's a log home, it would be at the top of our estimated budget and one that's on a smaller piece of land and would need a garage added (but the price is REALLY affordable, so it would be in our budget to add the garage if it would be doable).

I have other errands to run too - grocery shopping and maybe try to clean up around the house too.

Sunday - Football day.  I haven't decided if I'll go or not.  My house really needs some cleaning.

Monday I'm off for my relaxing PJ day!!

KeptInStitches

@dignity100, I post pictures occasionally, but I'm not much of a camera girl in the first place, so there aren't many of them out there. Have fun at your office party!

@cocobellaf, have fun with the cookie swap! Sometime could I get the recipe for your lemon crinkle cookies? They were yours, right?

[Deleted User]

yeah, I have it on my phone actually!

Lemon Crinkle Cookies
makes 2-3 dozen

1/2 c. butter, softened
1 c. granulated sugar
1/2 tsp vanilla extract
1 whole egg
1 tsp lemon zest (I double the zest!)
1 TBS fresh lemon juice (make sure and use fresh, and don't double this or the consistency will be weird)
1/4 tsp salt
1/4 tsp baking powder
1/8 tsp baking soda
1 1/2 c. all-purpose flour
1/3 c. powdered sugar (save for the end)

1.  preheat oven to 350 deg.  cover baking sheets with parchment paper.
2.  mix dry ingredients (flour, salt, baking powder, baking soda) in a bowl.
3.  cream butter and sugar until light and fluffy in a mixing bowl.  whip in vanilla, egg, zest, and juice.  scrape down the sides and mix again.
4.  gradually mix in dry ingredients until just combined.  scrape the sides of the bowl and mix briefly again.
5.  pour powdered sugar in a bowl or plate.  form a little bit of dough into a ball, and roll it generously in the powdered sugar.  place on baking sheet; continue with remaining dough.
6.  bake for 8-11 minutes or until bottoms begin to barely brown and cookies start to look matte (not shiny).  remove from the oven and let cool for 3 minutes before transferring to a baking rack.

*if using a non-stick darker baking tray, reduce baking time by 1-2 minutes.

lmcooper86

@KeptInStitches - True, we might still go by since it's probably the same style of house as we'll end up buying and it looks like they've already done the renovations that we would want. So even if we can't afford it, it would be great to see how it looks, it would help me envision what our renovated home could look like. Are you just getting started on the baby blanket now? What's it going to look like?

@CocoBellaF - The mall that we're going to is ALWAYS busy, and I just know that the second-last Saturday before Christmas is going to be crazy! I think we'll be alright, since we have a place and know where we need to go, but FI and I both get frustrated with slow walkers and crowds and stuff. We need to just get in and out as fast as possible lol. Those cookies sound SO good, I hope your cookie swap goes well!

@buddysmom80 - Happy wedding day!!!

KeptInStitches

@lmcooper86, since it's the Christmas season, it's odds-on I'll end up pulling a blanket out of the leftover stock from the show - but shh! They're all handmade, too. I don't have good blocking space until January, and she's due in January ... It'll be like the patterns I posted before here. Since she's having a boy, it'll probably be blue.

eilis1228

I'm so tired today. Last night was insane. It was just one of those nights when the universe wants to make life harder. I left work at normal time and stopped at Michael's to get frames for engagement pictures we're giving to parents and grandparents. I found some really good deals but still of course spent a good chunk of change. I went next door to the Walmart to get ingredients for a second lasagna for Saturday's Friendsmas party, and for a collage picture frame thing to hang on my wall, and some gift sacks for the gift pics. This Walmart was INSANE. It was completely packed, I couldn't find anything easily (I'd never been to it before and it was a Super, Mega, HUMONGOUS Walmart), there were staff members literally running around the store, the people in the store were borderline shady, and when I did finally find the frames and gift sacks, they were thrown into piles and really unorganized. It took me waaaaay longer than expected to get everything, and then traffic sucked by the time I left. I needed to get home by 6:30 because our friends who are hosting Friendsmas were coming to borrow our dining table, so I was super stressed. I took some back roads and made it home around 6, but as I was taking the groceries up to my apartment, one of the bags ripped and a glass bottle of pasta sauce shattered on the cement stairs. There was sauce everywhere! It got all over my dress pants, and I had to throw everything in the apartment, grab a trash bag and a ladle, and clean up what looked like a murder scene lol. I got it all cleaned up pretty quickly, but by then I was exhausted and dreading having to cook everything. :-P

FI got home shortly thereafter with more pasta sauce for me and some pretty poinsettias to help me feel better. He helped me layer the lasagnas, and they turned out really nicely. I also made two batches of cookie dough last night, and they're in the fridge chilling. Tonight I'll make snickerdoodle, chocolate crackle, and chocolate chip cookies after we get back from dinner with our friends and their daughter. I may convince FI to make his cheesy rolls too. He looooves them. They're the ones you can get at Brazilian steak houses like Fogo de Chao or Texas de Brazil. Soooo good. After we cooked everything last night, I put together the fancy frames with the engagement pics and wrapped them. I also started putting together the collage frame I bought at Walmart, and of course one of the glass pieces broke as I was closing it all. Stupid friggin Walmart. I ended up eating a bunch of gummy bears in frustration lol.

Tomorrow morning I need to work out, and then we're (hopefully) headed to East Texas to see FI's grandfather. I think this may be my last chance to see him while he's alive, so I'm pestering FI to confirm everything today. We'll probably go over there around lunch time and talk to his grandfather and do some chores around the house. Then around 2 or 3 we'll head home. That night we have Friendsmas, which I'm really looking forward to. I think 10 or 11 people will be there. We'll have tons of food, booze, and presents. It will be so much fun!

Sunday morning I definitely need to work out, and then FI and I need to get groceries for the week. Sunday afternoon we're driving out to see some friends and our goddaughter for dinner. We'll give them their Christmas presents at that time too. That night I need to make a green bean casserole for our potluck lunch at work on Monday, and then I'll promptly collapse from exhaustion. :-P

@KeptInStitches I would love to see more pics of your work!

@CocoBellaF Oh wow, lemon crackle cookies sound divine!

@buddysmom80 HAPPY WEDDING DAY!!!

@lmcooper86 Good luck with your busy weekend! I'd definitely look at the house just to see. Like you said, even if you aren't able to buy it, it will help visualize what all of the renovations you've talked about will look like.  

@Dignity100 Good luck with the raffle! I love the Westin beds. Sooooo comfy!

Swazzle

I'M LEAVING WORK IN 15 MINUTES!!!! I'm going to get a manicure and then handle my mustache and unibrow and then I'll be on my way to @buddysmom80's wedding!!!!

She is going to be STUNNING and I can't wait to dance the night away with some of my favorite people on Earth. I AM SO EXCITED!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[Deleted User]

@eilis1228 - I LOVE Pão de Queijo!!  we have some friends from Brazil, and whenever they are in town I have her make a ton of them and I freeze them.  YUM!!  does he use the tapioca flour?  you can buy some that are pretty good at Whole Foods in the frozen section, if you're ever craving them and in a pinch!

[Deleted User]

Good morning!  This will be a P & R, because I'm heading back for another day in the archives.  I got some good stuff yesterday, but I've still got a long way to go in this particular archive.  I'm frustrated because I didn't get up as early as I needed to...I should have been there at least an hour ago, so I'm going to try really hard to focus in and get a lot done.

Last night after research I went to take a yoga class and then Mr. H and I FaceTimed, which is why I'm so tired, because we didn't hang up until 2:00 am.  I got really upset and sad that he can't be here for Christmas (or any other time) until he finds a new job...usually I manage to keep all that under control, but I was just so upset last night.  But he helped me calm down, and then when I woke up he'd sent me a really sweet email reassuring me that everything is going to be okay.  This morning I feel better, like I'm hopeful that he finds something soon...I've started praying for a miracle at this point.

This weekend is more research, then on Sunday I'll drive to my next stop.  I get to stay with my grandparents and see my sister/BIL while I'm there, so I'm really looking forward to that!

OK...off to work on Operation Dissertation!

AlPacina

Sounds like you're all going to be pretty busy this weekend!

Tonight I'm hoping for some quality time with BF, even though he'll probably pass out super early. I'm pretty sure he was 30 minutes late for work today because he kept pressing snooze. Luckily they're pretty flexible about when he can arrive......... I just wish he wasn't so tired all the time.

Last night we had our friends and their son over. I made lasagna, and it turned out great! However, there was another huge wind storm last night. The lasagna had only been in the oven about 10 minutes before we completely lost power. We found out their apartment still had power, so everyone got everything they needed, I grabbed my dish out of the oven, and RIGHT as we were walking out the door the lights turned back on. We played Cranium while it finished cooking, and I re-affirmed that I totally kick ass at charades AND drawing with my eyes closed. Seriously, I'm super good. :P

Tomorrow I'm going shopping with my little sister, hitting up the Adidas employee store with a 50% off coupon, and then trying to find a leather jacket for BF somewhere. Then we're going to my FAVORITE Cajun restaurant for dinner, and I'm definitely getting alligator jambalaya. Then I'm hoping to find a bar with karaoke so she and I can rock everyones socks off. I'm thinking "Starships" by Nikki Minaj. Either that or something by C Lo.

Peaseblossom55

@buddysmom80 Have a happy wedding day

I am so beyond exhausted I just want to sleep.  I have a day off on Monday but I have so much to get done.   Tonight Xmas carol opens, yay.  We have 2 shows on Saturday and another on Sunday. I'll need a weekend to recover from my weekend at this point.  I have so much to do and so little time. I need a personal assistant so badly.

eilis1228

@CocoBellaF We loaded up on tapioca flour last year on Amazon. He LOVES those rolls, but we haven't made them in a while. I think they'd be a great addition to lasagna, so I'm going to try and make some tonight with him. They're sooooo good! Thanks for the tip about Whole Foods! I didn't realize anyone made a frozen, pre-made kind. That's awesome!

lavenderfields13

@buddysmom80 happy wedding day!!

FI is off today and will be out xmas shopping with his mom. If he's still out when I get off work I might go to get a couple presents for him. If he's back I'll just go home and maybe we'll get dinner. He has been on vacation this week and I/we've been busy and Wednesday was the only day this week I didn't eat a meal from a restaurant! 

Tomorrow is his friend's birthday so we'll probably go out and do something for that. It's his 30th but I think his GF didn't really know what to do for him so didn't plan anything big.

Sunday we will probably lounge on the couch and be lazy while FI watches football unless he has other plans.

At some point this weekend I need to clear all the laundry off the dining room table (we use it as our laundry room!) and clean the bathroom and put up a new shower curtain. We have no fan in the bathroom and have major issues with mold and mildew- it's so gross!

phira

@BuddysMom80 HAPPY WEDDING DAY!!!

@eilis1228 Holy crap, that sounds like a lot of stress!! Especially with the pasta sauce getting everywhere after you've just spent a lot of time being stressed in Walmart and in traffic. Eesh!

@futuremrshistorian Good luck with OPERATION DISSERTATION!

I am so fatigued today that I can hardly lift my arms up. Like, right now, typing is actually hard. Thanks, infusion! I'm resting (of course) and then I'm going to try to get some work done.

Tomorrow, I'm going to enlist J to do some cleaning before he hangs out with his brother, and then Sunday, I'm probably going to try to clean and then we're hoping to have dinner with my parents in law.

lmcooper86

@KeptInStitches - Haha, good call! If you already have an appropriate one made then what's the point in stressing yourself out trying to finish another one?

@eilis1228 - UGH that is such a sucky evening! Walmart can be awful on a normal day and it's so much worse this time of year. I wonder if anyone saw you cleaning up your murder scene... I hope your baking goes well tonight, I'm roping FI into helping me, which is very weird because I am a control freak about baking...but really I'm only getting him to do sprinkles. I've just realize that I am letting him do approximately as much as a child.

@futuremrshistorian - I hope your research goes well today. All the job vibes for your man!!

eilis1228

I went to lunch with my boss and a couple of coworkers, and she announced that we can all leave at 3. :-P Woohoo! This means I can go home and bake the cookies in the fridge, and that way tonight I only have to do one more batch of cookies. I can maybe sneak in a workout too because I was bad at lunch. That frosted fudge brownie was too good to resist!

@phira Yeah it was not a good start to the evening. The pasta sauce especially was awful, but I got it cleaned up fairly quickly and was still able to cook, so the night wasn't totally awful.

@lmcooper86 LMAO I was so worried someone was going to come out and be like, "WHAT ON EARTH????" Alas, no one did. It smelled like pizza on the stairs for a few hours though, and today there's a big red stain on them. Oops! I think sprinkles is a great baby step for baking help. I don't know about you, but that's all I trust FI with. He likes to steal the dough and eat it all before I can bake anything...

lmcooper86

We had @phira's gory bloody hand yesterday, now @eilis1228 the (pasta sauce) murderer!

@eilis1228 - We just found out that we can't go up to my cottage to pick up what we wanted tomorrow because they got 3 feet of snow yesterday and there's no way they can get our boat stall unlocked! So that means more baking time for me too! And yeah, FI has been wanting cookies for like 3 days but he hasn't been over while I've been baking...I'm worried that I'm going to magically lose a bunch of cookie dough...

eilis1228

Here's a pic of the crime scene:

We are a gory bunch these days!

@lmcooper86 3 feet?! Holy moly! I'm glad you get more baking time though. That works out really nicely for you. Good luck keeping the dough away from your FI! Last year my FI actually threw me over his shoulders so he could get to the cookie dough... it was ridiculous. Men. You and @CocoBellaF (and anyone else baking) should post pics of the finished products

[Deleted User]

@phira and @imcooper86 - Thanks!  Operation Dissertation is well underway...pretty good luck today at the archives.  I'm going to need to do a little work tomorrow, but I was worried for a while I wouldn't be able to look at everything I need since I'm only here for 3 days.  But I'm good.  So now I'm going to have a glass of wine and...grade finals.  :-/

phira

@eilis1228 Ahahaha I scared Birdo by laughing out loud at the crime scene photo

lmcooper86

@eilis1228 - Aw, I have no pictures! I meant to post this late on Friday: so like I said, I was going to let FI help me with baking, mostly with the sprinkles. I have 3 different kinds of Christmas sprinkles and I usually just put one kind on each cookie...FI's approach was to put all three on every cookie! It was actually like baking with a toddler, he's ridiculous!

FI and his dad are both incorrigible about baked goods, they kept stealing the cookies off the cooling racks. And I actually got really annoyed with FFIL, I guess he grabbed a couple cookies out of a container when he got home Saturday night but then didn't properly close the container!! I woke up on Sunday and found it not totally sealed, and by then the cookies had gone sort of dry. I was really upset that I'd spent so much time baking on Saturday only to have a good chunk of it somewhat spoiled because he was careless. I know it sounds petty, but I spent HOURS baking on Saturday and was really annoyed that he couldn't just close the damn container to keep the chewy cookies chewy! Grumble grumble /end rant.