Reily

Happy Birthday Reily!

It's Reily's birthday today!  The big 9!  I can't believe she is 9 and doesn't look a day older than 1.  I love that she is a runt and still has an adorable puppy face.  It's a good thing she is cute because her middle of the night wake ups and bed hogging ways are frustrating.  But she keeps me happy and entertained.  She is by far the best decision I've made in my 20s, besides moving back to St. Louis. 



She has been there through thick and thin and can always make me smile on a bad day.  And is always eager to play fetch or with her duck.  She is nothing more than a great dog!  Happy Birthday Reiles!

Sunny, Warm February

How crazy has the St. Louis weather been?  It's up to almost 70 one day and the next I'm sitting at my desk watching snow flurries blow by.  It has been a very mild winter with a few days in the 20s but nothing too bad.  This past weekend was great!  Saturday morning was a little chilly at the farmer's market but then the afternoon warmed up to the 50s and no coats needed.

Sunday was even better.  We turned the heat off, not the first time this winter, and opened the windows for the entire day.  I woke up in the middle of the night to find Reily snuggled in as close at possible, so it might have been a little chilly for her.  I let her out and closed the kitchen window at 4AM. 

I love this great weather!  Bring on spring!

Fat Tuesday

Happy Mardi Gras!  It's going to be a challenging Lent this year.  I'm stuck on what I should give up, I'm leaning towards chocolate and snacking.  We'll see how it goes this year.

Pinterest

  The new craze on the Internet has been Pinterest.  It's highly addicting and it's filling up a lot of my free time.  Basically, you get invited to join and then it's up to you to fill your boards.  There are things from recipes, DIY crafts, Holiday decoration idea, work outs, random pictures, how to decorate the house (every room) and much more. 

I was invited just a short while ago, in December and I have quickly made use of it.  I've found a lot of cooking recipes that I've tweaked a bit.  Plus there are great cleaning ideas and ways to save money.

A page looks like this and there are so many ideas that just pop up every second of the day, it's easy to see how one can get carried away.

Valentine's Day

Let me say this first, I'm not the biggest fan of Valentine's Day.  To me it's a little commercialized and I don't need all the fuss.  So, I would have been happy cooking diner at home and watching hockey, I'm easy.  Instead we had "plans."

About a week ago, Scott asked for my work address.  I kinda figured I would be receiving something at my desk.  I took a walk around campus came back and Scott was messaging me to see if I had received something.  I hadn't.  That started my calling 3 different places around campus to find where the flowers had been delivered.

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After work I was told to meet Scott at his office as soon as I could since he had reservations somewhere.  By the time I made it to Soulard, Scott hopped in the car and we head over to Lafayette Square.  I was pleasantly surprised that Scott picked Sqwire's for dinner.  I had never been there and really wanted to try it.

The meal was great we started out with the Table Tasting Board and had carmelized dates, apple sausage, carmelized garlic, cheese bread, and Brie.  It was all great and I really liked the mustard dipping sauce.



For our main course, I had Strip Steak and Scott had the Pork Tenderloin.  Both dishes were amazing and served with scalloped potatoes.  We even saved some room for desert, chocolate ravioli with coffee flavored ice cream.  So good!  I can't wait to go back to try something new!

Let's Go Blues

The Blues have been on a tear since the All Star Break and it's been fun hockey to watch.  We stayed home after the taste of Soulard to watch the hockey game and an amazing victory.  On Friday we decided that we needed to catch another, better game.  So we bought tickets in honor of Abe Lincoln for $16 each!

We arrived a little late to the hockey game due to the movie, Safe House, running longer than we thought.  It was only the middle of the first period and the Blues were looking good.  They won 3-0, including an empty net goal in the 3rd period that Scott predicted.  It was a great game and a great way to end the weekend.

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Chicken Wings

Scott and I have been trying new ways to make chicken wings.  We found a recipe that I tried for our Super Bowl wings, it was pretty good.  So after going to Soulard this weekend we picked up some new spices to try.

I tried a Herb & Garlic flavoring for half the wings and a chili, paprika, cumin flavoring for the other half.  I they turned out tasting pretty good.  I have the chili, "hot," wings down.  Now I need to work on the Herb & Garlic to kick up the flavoring a bit more.



We did decided that we are going to continue baking the wings instead of frying them.  All in all, it was a productive wings day!