Fast Eddies

It's that time of year again.  Time to hit the Great River Road and go to Fast Eddies for the afternoon.  This year I decided not to hop on the party bus and drive over with Scott and Kristin.  It was a better option.  We arrived before everyone did and had time to get in the food line, avoid the cougars that were on the prowl and get some great food.



By the time the party bus arrived, we were still trying to find a table to sit.  Kristin made friends with a table and found out it would be ours in an hour.  It wasn't too bad, Scott held my shrimp while I peeled and ate them.  I hear it didn't smell too good, but they tasted great!



We hung out for a few hours and people watched.  We even ran into the Boland's there!  Two years in a row I've seen someone I knew there.



The best part about leaving was that we left with enough time to go home, let Reily out and make to the Birch's for Mathew's birthday party!

Un-Ghettoing

We spent yesterday cleaning up the outside of the house.  Since it's been crazy warm most of winter and already into spring the grass was growing really fast as well as some weeds.  The front of the house needed some up keeping.  We trimmed the bushes in the front and then raked out the leaves and added some mulch to give it some color. 

We had planned on planting some flowers, however, the guy at the nursery said we are still just a bit too early for that.  Maybe in a few weeks we can get some color added to the front. 



We spent a little time at Lowe's this weekend and found a great patio table and chairs that actually fits the patio.  We talked a little flooring and looked at some bathroom paint as well. 



After finishing the front, Scott tried to trim the trees at the top of the hill.  That worked for a while, until the black jacks started to swarm the area.  So about half the trees have been trimmed but it still looks so much better.

CR-V

My little CR-V had quite the milestone today.  After 11 years, 4 months the CR-V has hit 170,000 miles.  Pretty impressive feat for a car these days. 

It's fun to think about how much that little car has seen.  Round trip to Orlando and back to San Antonio.  Round trips to Houston and Dallas many times.  A drive to Lincoln from St. Louis, up to Chicago and back to St. Louis.  Even the drive from San Antonio to St. Louis when I moved. 

Thanks CR-V for all the trips you've taken me on and might make for another month or so.

Spring Cleaning

Scott had to work this weekend so I decided that it was time to do some major Spring cleaning.  Not to mention, I hadn't planned to go down to Dogtown for any for the St. Patrick's Day festivities so I had the time.  I started with just cleaning the kitchen and 4 hours later the kitchen was mostly done. 

I really think I have inherited my parents crazy cleaning tatics so it was really much better that Scott was at the office working while I did my cleaning.  I had my music playing, Reily sleeping on the floor and it was a busy day.  I only brought the new espresso pot while putting it back on the counter.  The espresso cups knocked it off the stand and glass everywhere.  Good thing we still had the old coffee maker in the basement. 

I only took a couple breaks to watch the storms roll in and hang out with a very nervous dog. 

By Sunday, I still need to finish cleaning the house and cleaning out drawers of rarely used clothes.  Sunday was a little more relaxed.  While organizing the pantry I decided to try out the new camera.  Reily was subjected to an impromtu photo shoot.  She did surprisingly well and we got a few decent pictures. 





It's a nice feeling know how clean the kitchen is considering the amount of time I spent cleaning it and the house.

Blues

I have the Blues.  I can't get enough of hockey this year.  The Blues are currently tied for first place in the entire NHL.  This is a huge deal since we didn't make the playoffs last year and were eliminated after the first round two years ago.  It's a nice change of pace for the team. 

After we hired Ken Hitchcock in November, the Blues have been dominating the ice.  It's a guarantee that almost every Tuesday, Thursday and Saturday nights are consumed with us watching hockey.  There is a month left in regular season and then it's playoff hockey time, something this city hasn't seen much of since the mid 90s.  I think we are ready for it!

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Let's go Blues!!!

New Food

I am completely my father's daughter and totally Italian.  I have been looking online for new recipes to change-up our weekly meals from the boring routine.  I have found some new casserole dishes that haven't been too horrible the first time around.  Of course the next time we make them we will be tweaking the recipe a bit for a little more flavor.

The first casserole we made was an up-side down pizza casserole which turned out great!

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The next one I tried was a chicken, pea, red pepper, pasta.  It wasn't too bad but needed a little more flavor than what the directions called for.  Then I tried to make a cheesy meatball pasta.  I miss reread (or didn't read) the directions too closely and so we created a pasta layer casserole which came out great!

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Lastly, we tried a spinach mac and cheese.  This was a weight watchers recipe and it wasn't too bad.  Maybe it could use a little more cheese.  It wouldn't be only 4 points on the weight watchers scale, but it would be tastier.

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Crafty

It seems the craft bug has hit me.  I'm going to blame Pinterest for all my desires to be crafty and spend time at Hobby Lobby.  The site has shown me some pretty easy, yet fun decorating designs.  Some have been easier than other but each time I've found a new way to create holiday decor. 

This weekend Zipf and I hit up Hobby Lobby, Ben Franklin, and Hancock Fabrics for some foam, felt and pins.  All to make shamrock wreaths.  We gathered all our material and got crafty this weekend.  It started with me cutting hearts from a sheet of styrofoam. 



That was probably the hardest part.  I cut out a few circles, traced from a can of beans. 





Then slowly pinned them all on the hearts. 

I even worked on some Easter decorations that I had started earlier in the week.  I made some candy jars and the spray painted the lids white to hide the Prego and Clausen lid.  I bought a couple of candle holders that I still need to paint white to finish the look.   

Eli Young Band

For your Leap Year celebrations we, mainly I, decided that we needed to go to a concert.  I had know that Eli Young Band was coming to St. Louis for a while and thought it would be fun to see them, plus they were going to the Pageant.  It had been 2 years since we've last been there to see a concert and thought it was time.

We arrived a little early, picked up the tickets and Will Call and then went to the Eclipse Bar for a quick drink or caffeine to get us through the night.  We made it in just before the opening act, Eric Paslay, started.  We even managed get seats fairly close to the stage.  I don't think we'll be sitting that close again since I couldn't hear when we walked out.



The opening act was really good.  I liked a lot of his songs and found out that he is mostly a songwriter and wrote, "Barefoot Blue Jean Night."  He came back out a little later and sang a song with Eli Young Band.



Eli Young Band put on a great show!  They were entertaining us the whole way through the show.  I would love to see them again!