Nun ya business.

Just in case I needed one more reason to love where I work...


I just spent the last 15 minutes discussing NCAA basketball, ESPN brackets, and the final four with our resident nun.  Nun's can have fun, too, you know.

iBlake

For the last two nights I've been lulled to sleep by the happy tip tip tapping of Blake on his new iPhone.

Luckily for me I can sleep through anything...even Angry Birds.

The General Store

I just found out that a restaurant in our neighborhood, The General Store, is closing its doors.

This is sad to me for two reasons:

A.  I really wanted to try some of their world-famous pie.

B.  I have good memories (ok, good memory singular) there. 

Several months ago I needed gum real bad.  REAL Bad.  But I was too lazy to drive to Giant or CVS (7 minutes away from our house), and the gas stations by our house don't have convenience stores, so I suggested to Blake, "Hey, let's try that General Store in our neighborhood.  I bet they have random convenience store things.  It is, after all, a general store, right?"

And so I walked in like a woman on a mission.  Like I said, I needed my gum fix. 

I noticed the people sitting at the tables with menus, and the man hovering by me that looked suspiciously like a waiter, but I kept going.  I walked all the way to the back of the buildling, through several rooms, and past numerous tables.  And.  No gum. 

Then the man who looked suspiciously like a waiter jogged after me and asked me if I would like a table.  That's when my suspicions were confirmed.  This was, in fact, a restaurant and not a general store as advertised. 

I contemplated ordering some pie, but instead walked out sheepishly while Blake held in a giggle. 

So.  I didn't end up with any gum that night, but I'll always have fond memories of The General Store.

(Photo via)

The Zoo, Sock Monkey and Jimmer

Saturday we went to the zoo with Logan and Janelle, the entire touring population of the Midwest and smattering of hipsters in sock-less loafers. -

We had a good time cracking jokes about pandas, making up dialogue for the great cats, and discussing how the most entertaining animals to watch at the zoo were actually the tourists.  Then we sat in the parking lot for 45 minutes waiting to get out.  And Logan discussed how he'd tell off a certain Pennsylvania driver if there weren't women folk around.  Lets just say that I'm glad there were women folk around.

I think the highlight of my evening was watching the boys watch Jimmer and Blake's favorite sock monkey commericial:



Blake laughs so hard and so uncontrollably every time he sees this commercial that I can't help but giggle along. 

I think Janelle and I particularly needed a good laugh after being repeatedly beaten in Wii Mario Kart by our husbands.  I still maintain that there must have been some cheating going on.  Just you wait.  Some day Yoshi and Bowzer with prevail against Toad and Mini Mario.  And when that day comes, you can bet your sock monkey that there will be much cheering and gloating.

Answers

Firstly (and most importantly), here is the recipe for the homemade oreos mentioned in this post.  They're about the simplest cookies I've ever made --even rivaling the old tried-and-true chocolate chip cookies.

Ingredients
1 boxed Devil's Food cake mix
2 eggs
1/2 cup Crisco

Pre-heat oven to 350 degrees.  Mix Devil's Food, eggs and Crisco until combined.  Roll dough into quarter-sized balls and place on greased cookie sheet.  Bake for 8-9 minutes.  This should make 40 individual cookies or 20 paired oreos.

I usually frost them with a cream cheese frosting (1/3 package of cream cheese, a couple tablespoons of butter and milk, and several cups of powdered sugar), but you can frost them with straight buttercream, too.

Secondly.  Like I mentioned yesterday, last week was an exciting one for us.  Blake and I both got job offers.  Flattered as we both were to get these out-of-the blue offers, after much consideration we both decided to stay where we are because, well, we really like where we are and we feel really good staying where we are. 

And if that wasn't already flattering enough, I also learned that I was getting a promotion with a fancy new title and a raise.  NEAT!  AND.  I won a staff award, which also comes with a cash prize.  There's nothing like "found money" to add a little spring to my step.  I've already spent a portion of this found money on the Matt Clark painting and am planning to spend the rest in Europe (six weeks from tomorrow!). 

As you can imagine, all of this came as quite the surprise in our quiet-little-lives.  And, though this hullabaloo has been a lot of flattery and a lot of fun, I'm rather tired and am ready to go back to that life.  I like quiet and little, and sometimes I even like boring.

A promotion, an award, and a job offer.

We had cause to celebrate this week, so we snapped up this painting that we've been coveting from our friend Matt Clark.

I fell in love with it as soon as I saw it and knew immediately that it was destined to hang in our home.  Isn't it beautiful? 

Streak Free Shine

We spent Sunday afternoon watching The Edge and saving a sparrow that had the unfortunate luck to slam into our glass door.

Blake and Anthony Hopkins were explaining that the Kodiak bear is a "man killer."  I was hiding my face under my blanket during the brutal attack scene and jumped when I heard a sharp thwap just outside the room.  Blake is braver than I, so he ventured out to see what had happened.

A concussed sparrow was quivering on our patio and our resident black squirrel was eyeing it with malice.  We've seen the black squirrel battle it out with the grey squirrel (we call it Race Wars) and weren't about to leave the sparrow to its crafty ways.  So we got a spade, garden gloves and a cardboard box lined with toilet paper and moved the sparrow into the box as quietly and quickly as possible.

After a quick google, we learned that we'd done just the right thing (minus giving the bird some seeds, which is apparently exactly the wrong thing to do).  And sure enough after a couple of  immobile hours, the bird flew away.

And now I have an excuse to stop using Windex.  My windows are just too darn clean....

Things Organized Neatly

(Via Things Organized Neatly)

As I've mentioned before, I love crisp right angles and precise placement.  Which is probably why this photo appeals to me on so many different levels.  The entire blog is eye candy to my chaos-hating eyes.

It also reminds me of Blake.  Because when he gets home in the evening he'll empty out his pockets, place his iPod, Blackberry, phone and keys down on the counter and proclaim: "my techmology!"