Busy Busy

It's already 1 PM here, and I am just now getting around to this. This is absolutely indicative of the sort of week I've got lined up. Tonight is my only free evening, and it is certainly not a free day … with every portion of it being lined up with meetings, etc.

Last night, we went to a 93rd b'day party for my paternal grandmother. My dad cooked a great dinner and we all enjoyed celebrating grandma's 93rd year. I just hope we can all be as healthy and together as she is at that age.

Tonight, as I said, is free. Tomorrow I'm going to get my dress back from being altered and I have to try it on and they make sure it's right, etc. Not going to be a very time-consuming thing, but it sticks in the middle of the evening and has to be done.

Thursday is my mom's b'day as well, which we will be celebrating with some dinner and miscellaneous fun on Friday.

I ♥ busy weeks.

Memorial Day Weekend

Well, we had a very nice memorial day weekend. Friday at Elitch Gardens was good fun. I rode all of the roller coasters … and only liked two of the, the old-fashioned wooden roller coaster (with no upside down) and the flying coaster which was slower and less dramatic in general. The day was a bit overcast and it tried to rain a few times, but that just mostly kept the lines pretty short and the heat at bay. After dinner and some ice cream, we attempted to watch the first X-men movie. Kelly and Matt made it, but I had to go to sleep.

Saturday, the boys went mountain biking and Holly and I took the dogs and the baby to Three Sisters for a hike. We got caught with them off-leash by a park ranger, but he was very nice and spared us a ticket. It probably helped that they were angels and came right to us. After some more miscellaneous fun, lunch, errands, Matt and I took a very tired Loki home. Continue reading “Memorial Day Weekend”

Fresh Peach Croustades

 

from: Cooking Light

Ingredients
1/4 cup sugar
1/4 cup water
1/4 cup small mint leaves
1 sheet puff pastry
2 cups sliced peeled peaches

Directions
Preheat oven to 400°.
Combine sugar and water in a small saucepan. Bring to a boil; cook 1 minute or until sugar dissolves. Cool completely. Place sugar mixture and mint in a blender; process until smooth. Combine mint mixture and sliced peaches in a bowl.

Cut 4 (2-inch) circles in puff pastry using a sharp round cookie cutter. Roll each circle of dough into a 4-inch circle on a floured surface. Place on a baking sheet. Bake at 400° for 12 minutes or until golden brown. Top with peach mixture.

Nutritional Info (1 croustade, 1/2 cup peach mixture)
CALORIES 166(30% from fat); FAT 5.5g (sat 1.4g,mono 3.1g,poly 0.8g); PROTEIN 1.8g; CHOLESTEROL 0.0mg; CALCIUM 17mg; SODIUM 37mg; FIBER 2.3g; IRON 1.1mg; CARBOHYDRATE 28.8g

Six Flags!

Matt earned some comp time last week when he stayed over the weekend in California, so we're kicking off memorial day weekend by taking half days and going with our siblings (the ones who live in tow, that is) to Six Flags Elitch Gardens. Elitch Gardens have been a CO institution since … like forever. They used to be real deal huge tree gardens with great picnic shelters and a visible lack of comercialization. But times have changed and they were bought up by Six Flags a long while back and then moved down town where there were noticably fewer trees and noticably more Warner Bros. characters and swag. Oh well.

It's supposed to be a gorgeous day, so I'm really looking forward to some water rides and sun. And heck, even if it rains, we all have season passes, so we can come and go as we please. Happy Memorial Day Weekend!!

News/Stuff Only I Care About

* Wii for under $220 … wheeee!!!
* coolest mosaic ever
* this sounds fake
* du du da duh, du du da duh Tail Spin!
* I ♥ Sony … NOT!
* like MC Escher, but in color
* What might've been had communism worked (looks a bit like Sky Captain in the World of Tomorrow, eh?)
* iPod alternatives?
* fabulous. free.
* duh!
* don'tcha miss the good ol' days of the USSR? yea, me neither.
* yea, couldn't be our attitude about education … it must be the textbooks!
* good news for pot heads
* excellent t'shirts, only 10bills, not from Old Navy

Work has been nutz. Later!

Peanut Butter Banana Cupcakes

 

from: BakingSheet

Ingredients
1 3/4 cups all purpose flour
2 tsp baking powder
1/4 tsp salt
1 cup sugar
1/4 cup butter, very soft
1/4 cup creamy peanut butter
2 large eggs
1 cup ripe banana, mashed (2 large)

Directions
Preheat oven to 350F. Line 16 holes of a cupcake tin with muffin liners.
In a small bowl, whisk together flour, baking powder and salt.
In a large bowl, cream together sugar and butter until fluffy. Beat in peanut butter. Add in the eggs one at a time, followed by the bananas.
With the mixer on low speed, beat in the flour mixture until just combined. Evenly distribute batter into 16 muffin cups.
Bake for 16-18 minutes, just until a tester comes out clean. The cupcakes will be very lightly browned.
Cool completely on a wire rack before frosting. Chocolate frosting?

In the Dog House

Isn't this a cute bag? Kelly and I certainly thought so. We ordered it for my mom for her birthday a week or so ago. It arrived last week and it was sitting on my coffee table, patiently waiting to be wrapped. Loki apparently liked this bag very much as well. He thought it looked good enough to eat. So Friday night, when he was home alone, he did. Of course, he didn't destroy it too throughly, just enough that it looks rather rough around the edges and is completely unacceptable as a birthday present. Oy. Needless to say, the box has returned. I may have to call in the Dog Whisperer.

I tried pretty hard to tire Loki out over the weekend. He spent loads of time outside … hopefully he'll be good today. It may also help that Matt's back.

Brain Age

I'd been hearing loads about this game, Brain Age that they made for the Nintendo DS. It's sort of like a personal trainer for your mind. It takes you thru a series of tests to determine your “brain age.” You do things like simple math at rapid speed, memorize words and regurgitate them, and some other tricky stuff. My initial age is 35, which from what I hear is pretty decent, despite that it should be around 25. It also has a built-in Sudoku game … highly recommended fun, really uses the power of the DS. Nintendo is turning out sooo much cool stuff these days. I can't wait for the Wii.

An Alexander Day

I'm in a bit of a strop this morning for a couple of reasons. Loki has been wearing my nerves a bit thin with his antics. The day before yesterday, he took two boxes of special K bars off the kitchen counter and ate them all up. He left the box cardboard and wrappers for me to clean up. Last night, he demolished a foam football and littered our bedroom with foam … which I also have to clean up. Even worse than Loki's little antics was the confirmation I received last night that Matty has to stay in Cali 'til Sunday morning. Usually he's back by Fri. evening from these little trips, so I'm most disappointed. I usually look forward to the weekend, but going to the store and sleeping in, not to mention more adventurous things, aren't as much fun without him. I know the day can still be salvaged, and I'll try, but I've started it out a bit grumpy.