Memories For Tomorrow

"Each happiness of yesterday is a memory for tomorrow." -- George W. Douglas

I can tell you now, Saturday's post is going to suck. Today's post is crazy difficult to write with any of the joy that *should* be present when discussing the fun things we've done with friends. You'll understand on Saturday why today's post might seem a little less than stellar.

However, I didn't want to put it off. I want to stay accountable to our decision to create memories with ourselves and our friends. So here's what filled those last few weeks of July!

Sweetie's friend from college was in town and we had him over for dinner. Sweetie made some delicious turkey burgers, offered toppings of roasted red & orange bell peppers, a garlic mayo, romaine lettuce, tomato and cheese. She also made my new favorite pasta salad. They seemed to have a good time catching up. I felt like I came off rude because I was having trouble coming up with conversation and this friend seems to be much like me in that he needs someone else to get the conversation going. Or maybe it is just me. I'm glad he came over though. I do enjoy having him around.

Both Saturdays we took Max for his pack walk with The Pittie Pack Meetup group. I'm sure I've mentioned before how glad I am that we found this group. We walked at the Nelson-Atkins Sculpture Park and again at Indian Creek Trail. Both locations were beautiful in their own right. Sweetie took the reigns this time! And yes, this distance is an improvement, lol

One of our friends invited us over to the apartment complex they live in to swim in the pool. We went on a Saturday afternoon and had a good visit in the water. I sat on the ledge for reasons I won't state here, but having my legs in the water was nice! Sweetie was having trouble with her calves seizing up. At one point, she went to jump into the deep end and both legs seized up at the same time, essentially rendering her body a sinking ship. Once I recognized the fear in her face, I realized she wasn't just screaming from what I saw as a belly flop, but that she was in danger. I yelled at our friend to go get her and once she was close enough, I pulled her to the side with a foam noodle. We followed up the hours of water with a heaping dinner of spaghetti and salad, then played a few rounds of Contract Rummy.

July 24th was a friend's birthday. She invited us to dinner with her and her girlfriend at Buca di Beppo on the Plaza in KC. It was the first time we'd met her girlfriend so it was nice to finally put a face to that special person. I don't remember much about that night, not that I have any reason not to - I just don't. I have to assume it went well and I had a great time. I know we had some random person take a group picture of us outside the restaurant. It was taken with my friend's camera though so I don't have the pic to share.

I worked on one of the Wednesdays at church for Summer Concert Series, which was excellent. Sometimes I really luck out when it comes to getting paid to do really awesome stuff. I had taken the next day off so we could celebrate our nephew's birthday lunch. Since I didn't have to get up early, I suggested to Sweetie that we head over to Missie B's for the Maddie & Melissa Show. I never get to see the weekday shows since A) I have to get up early and B) I don't have the money to tip. Well, that week I had $20 extra AND didn't have to get up early!  Maddie & Melissa It was great to go out and enjoy ourselves. Between the show and Ashley, I was laughing all night long. I had to go dig up this pic that someone else took because I was so present in the moment that I didn't even think to take any!

The 26th was my nephew D's 8th birthday lunch at Chuck E Cheese. That place is normally a terror but on a Thursday afternoon, it was actually pretty enjoyable! There were probably 10 other people there besides our group of four. D loved the fort kit that Sweetie made him and he had 100 tokens to use up all to himself. It was a blast watching him enjoy himself!

We had lunch with Sweetie's family on the 28th to celebrate her birthday and her mother's birthday which was the following day. We then went to their house and hung out for a few hours. It was nice and relaxing.

Feeling Challenged

Sweetie and I have been trying not to let ourselves slip back into old habits so quickly. I recently acknowledged that we need to spend more time creating memories with ourselves and our friends. July hasn't started out as active as those last few weeks in June and I'll admit, it's a bit of a letdown. So far, it's been mostly Sweetie & I. We did have two successful gatherings with friends, and hopefully more will fall into place these last few weeks of July.

Fourth of July is a difficult holiday at our house. Our Cocker Spaniel, Max, is terrified of thunderstorms and fireworks. We took our chances going out the first year we had him. We had noticed he was skittish during the weeks prior so we left him in the bathroom, which at the time was the best sound-insulating room in the apartment. We came home 2 hours later to a neighborhood that seemed to be trying to recreate the soundtrack of a battlefield. When we opened the bathroom door, we found Max slipping around in a puddle of his pee, feces, and blood. He had bloodied his paws trying to dig his way through the door. Okay bud, we learned our lesson. We'll never leave you during wartime again. A couple we're friends with invited us to watch a movie at their house on July 3rd and said we could bring Max with us. We went and watched the movie - full of shoot-'em-up action which cleverly disguised the crackers popping outside at a steady pace. We remembered as we left the city they live in how much more horrible it was for Max when we lived there as well. They really do love their firecrackers! We were glad to have spent some time with our friends the night before because we had every intention of not leaving the house on 4th of July. The neighborhood we live in now has been 500% quieter than the neighborhood we lived in during Max's first 4th of July experience with us. However, since people come and go over the years, we can never be certain that it won't happen again. So we become intentional hermits one day a year. We put him in his Thundershirt and go to the basement to watch a movie (the only appropriately patriotic movie - Drop Dead Gorgeous, of course) while doing laundry. It seems to be enough noise in a further insulated environment that he doesn't even realize what's going on outside.

On the 10th, Sweetie and I gathered once again with friends at the Heart of America Shakespeare Festival and saw Antony and Cleopatra. I had ventured out to Aldi's that afternoon and picked up our favorite cheapo bottle of deliciously sweet red wine and another brick of the extra-sharp aged white cheddar. We got better seating than the previous visit and I enjoyed the performance. Some of our friends preferred the comedy we saw last time over the more serious tones of this drama. However, I felt it was easier to follow along with the dialogue at this one because there was less distracting activity going on. I cannot compare which I liked better because one was a comedy and one was a drama. I liked and disliked both for different reasons.

The 12th was my evening to volunteer at Harvester's with ServeKC. This is such a fun, hard-working, and efficient group to work with. It's the best kind of work for me too - body exhausting and mind clearing physical labor.

And that's really it. We invited friends over both Sundays and neither worked out. Sweetie came up with a good idea to (hopefully) keep me from getting too bummed out about it though. She suggested we make it a goal that twice each week, we do something with someone. That takes the pressure off any specific day working out. And since Sunday is the first (or last, depending on how you look at it) day of the week, there's plenty of other days to work it out after (or before). I really liked that suggestion.

Summertime Fun!

Sweetie and I have been getting out more despite the scorching temperatures. We didn't really start doing much until mid-June, but here's the recap of that busy final two weeks!

We attended the Heart of America Shakespeare Festival and saw Midsummer Night's Dream. We picked a weeknight, invited a bunch of people, and packed some fancy crackers, cheese, & a cheap (but delicious!) bottle of wine. We really have the best group of friends! The evening was full of conversation and laughter.  We're hoping to go back before it ends in mid-July to see Antony and Cleopatra.

We joined a Meetup group to help Max with his doggie socialization issues. The Pittie Pack is the best group we could have hoped to find. It was formed to create a safe environment for leash-reactive foster dogs to learn how to be around other dogs in a pack environment. They are sympathetic and not judgmental, which is what we love about it. I just want to crawl into a shell when Max lunges at the end of his leash at neighborhood dogs during our evening walks. I feel like our neighbors think he's some sort of vicious dog, when really he's just completely freaked out about other animals. So far, we're having to walk about 20 feet behind the group during the walks and even with that, Max is constantly pulling and/or attempting to lunge. He doesn't bark unless we get too close for his comfort though, which is improvement. I'm optimistic that eventually, we'll be able to walk closer to the pack and socialize with the people. It might be a year or so, but I think he'll get there.

A few people I knew were putting on a production of Pippi Longstockings through The Theatre for Young America. One of them gave out a bunch of free tickets to try and help fill up seats for a particularly slow day and I snatched up five of them. We went with my mom, neice, and nephew. My neice got quite a kick out of it. Her giggling was contagious! My nephew was very interested in the backstage tour that we got to experience, and also thrilled that he got to talk to one of the actors. I later told my friends (pictured above) that the scene where Pippi gets the "official document" stating her dad was presumed dead made Sweetie and I both cry. Like, real streaming tears cry. They were thrilled that they did such a good job, LOL

My mother invited us to a Royals game with some of her coworkers. United Way had given out a bunch of tickets so all we had to pay for was parking. My parents didn't end up being able to come due to a last-minute snafu but insisted we go and have a great time for them. We chatted up the entire game with a friend we hadn't seen in too long and had an overall great time! The Royals won against the Rays but I really dont' think that would have mattered!

Last Wednesday, I was on my way home from work and got a flat tire while on the inner lane of a 3-lane highway. I did make it to the shoulder but ruined the tire doing so. I'd been looking forward to joining our friends at "Supper Club" all month so I got right to work fixing it up. In 100+ (before heat index), khaki pants and flip flops, I set about kicking the lug wrench to loosen the nuts. I found out after removing the flat that the car wasn't jacked up high enough for the spare to go on. And it wasn't going to get any higher either. I have since learned from a few more experienced people that this is common with bottle jacks. Here I was, trying to buy the bottle jack to save me time and effort during my next flat - when all I'd managed to do was delay the process. Luckily, I was about a 10-minute drive from home. I called Sweetie and she drove out to meet me with her scissor jack, which would get the car up high enough to finish the job. While I waited on Sweetie, I climbed up the hillside and found a good shade tree to sit under. I was upset and angry that I was missing Supper Club. I was stressing about how much I'd have to spend to fix the tire the next morning. I was seconds away from letting a hiccup of crying begin when a sort of calm came over me. I thought, "eh, I should just calm down and sit here and enjoy sitting in the shaded grass. I'm fortunate that I didn't lose control or get stuck on the inner lane. I'm fortunate that Sweetie was available to bring me another jack. I'll just sit here and freaking relax." That lasted about 3 minutes, then the ants started biting. Really tiny, itty bitty, black ants. I had no idea how ferocious the little buggers could be! I started out just flicking them away but quickly realized they were swarming me. They were pinching away at my toes, ankles, lower back and neck. I was determined to continue with my forced relaxation though, so I just moved to another tree. However this time, instead of sitting, I squatted. I wasn't there long enough for my feet to get tired from squatting - maybe 2 minutes or so, when a wasp came and chased me away. Apparently it wasn't my calling to relax just then. When Sweetie showed up, I breathed a long sigh of relief and climbed down the hill to finish getting the spare on and head home.

Thursday, we had friends over for dinner. Sweetie made ribs in the the crockpot, which she then glazed with barbecue sauce and broiled just before we ate. They were freaking delicious! She also had whipped up a pasta salad and some ears of fresh sweet corn. Our friends brought dessert in the form of oreo fluff. All around, a delicious evening. We had a lot of catching up to do with them and talked around the table all evening.

Friday, we had more friends over for dinner. Sweetie grilled steaks, made some french bread, a scalloped potato dish and some steamed broccoli. Our friends came from out of town but insisted on bringing something. We ended up with appetizers, wine, and a key lime pie. More friends showed up later and brought a DQ ice cream cake just in time for me to leave for work. I had a slice shoved into a cup and took it with me - I was NOT going to miss out on a DQ cake!

Saturday, we got up earlier than usual to head out for my sister's wedding. The ceremony wasn't until 2:00 but I was needed during the 11:00 rehearsal since I was in charge of starting & stopping the music. Sweetie dropped me off and headed out to get some sewing toys. The entire day is kind of a cluster of images and flighty events until about 5pm, which is when we headed to St. Joseph for a barbecue and visiting with family who had driven in for the wedding. Once again, just as I'm settling into some good fun and conversation, the clock reminds me it's time to leave for work. I packed up some food for the road and gave hugs all around.

Sunday, we crashed. Sweetie took a 3 hour nap while I watched the entire first season of The IT Crowd on Netflix. I had key lime pie and french bread for lunch. After Sweetie woke up, we decided dinner would be ice cream and popcorn while we watched the original Moulin Rouge. The movie was horrendous, but it was nice to just sit back and do nothing.

We definitely spent more time in real life those last weeks of June! It might have seemed a bit much all at once but I enjoyed every minute of it. July 8th starts our Sunday gathering day and I've got a few messages out to people for other get-togethers. And after this post, I realize I need to take more pictures while I'm out there living it up!

It's How I Roll, Yo

When was the last time you went roller skating?!

A friend of ours went to Landmark Skate Center in April for a kid's birthday party and found out they have a discount night every Wednesday from 6:30-8:30. She invited Sweetie and I to join in the fun and we decided "What the heck, sure!"

That first time back on the floor was a little exhilarating and a little terrifying. I didn't fall but I didn't try anything "special" either. I took the turns cautiously, I never went too fast on the straightaway, and my feet stayed parallel to each other. I sweat up a storm! When we finished, my undershirt was completely soaked. We stopped for ice cream after and the dollars I pulled from my pocket were all soggy. Sweetie calls that "pool money". Ew. It was pretty disgusting but an awesome form of hidden exercise!

We went again on May 2nd. This time I got a little braver. I started crossing foot-over-foot during turns. I got to practice quick swerves and stops due to the amount of pint-sized kamikaze landmines skating that night. I lost my balance much more often. I even fell once. The fall happened fast but apparently not fast enough because I had time to stiffen which made it hurt so bad! I think I pulled the upper part of my hamstring where it meets up with the glute. I'm not very knowledgeable about which body parts are where so that could be completely wrong - but in my world, that's where it hurt.

I think this might turn into a once-a-month thing for us. The two of us can skate for 2 hours AND have twist cones for $10 total. June is right around the corner and I'm already looking forward to it!

We've found another rink, Winnwood Skate Center, that holds 2 Adults Only nights a week which is pretty exciting. It's about double the admission price ($6-7 so still pretty cheap!) and further away (north of the river) and later at night (8:30-11:30). The further drive combined with the later hours will make it less visited by our group but it's great to know it's there! I'm most excited about their Thursday adult night because it's "Old School Skate". They play 70's & 80's music - mostly funk.

Korean Food and a 97 Degree April Day!

Sweetie and I are part of a Supper Club that meets once a month. Each person in the group gets a month to pick and this week, the pick was Kokoro Maki House. They had both Japanese and Korean cuisine to choose from and a very large variety of sushi. I still didn't get brave enough to buy the sushi but after seeing everyone's samples around me, I'll definitely be trying some next time!

I ordered the Bul Go Gi with steamed rice, which was served with a side of Kimchi, Eomuk (fish cake), and Potato BokkEum. I'm including some pictures below that I found online - I did not whip out my camera during dinner but these all look like what I was eating.

Kimchi 

Bul Go Gi

Eomuk (closest link I could find - no soup though)

Potato BokkEum

Oh, and Sweetie shared some tempura calamari with me. Everything was delicious and I definitely want to try more! The couple sitting next to me had a sushi roll that was beef & asparagus, and a friend next to them had a cucumber roll. There was also a roll on the menu that had smoked salmon, cream cheese, and apple - that sounded decadent! So I think next time I'll spring for the sushi.

In other news, the weather has turned again. It was a blasting 97 degrees here today. In APRIL!? I am terrified at what August will bring. Yesterday, I planted a second round of snow peas, a second round of radish, and tried another direct planting of tomato & basil. I also planted various lettuces and a cucumber. One of the lettuces was actually the stem of a romaine head we'd finished from the store. I thought I'd try burying it and seeing if it takes root again. The same concept supposedly works with celery so I figured it was worth a shot. We'll see in a few weeks how those all turned out. Last night, I drew up the flower-scape intended to fill in around the veggies. I had planned to plant those today but it was just too hot. I also still need to widen the rock trench bordering the fence line landscaping in the backyard. It's supposed to be cool again by Saturday and we don't have any plans so I might just get it done!

We're having a group of friends over for a game night this Friday, which I'm very much looking forward to. I'm sure I'll have some fun quips to share about that on Sunday. 

The Good Stuff!

This was an abnormally horrible week. Things aren't bad anymore though, and it's not going to do me any good to gripe about it now anyway. Instead, I think I'll share the good stuff that happened!

Missie B's celebrated its 18 year anniversary this weekend and the special anniversary show was excellent! I was also invited to a dinner for performers, which made me feel wonderful to be included. Here are pics I found on FB of some of my favorites:

Daisy Buckët as Carol Channing

Austin as Ellen Degeneres and Seto as Michael Jackson

Loretta Martin as Adele

Sweetie and I watched The Hunger Games at Screenland Armour. They had 2 vinyl club chairs with a little table in between that we all but squealed over and snatched up right away. It wasn't really much of a race since we were the only ones there for the next 10 minutes, LOL

Swivel club chairs!

Next time though, we'll pick the normal seats. We were too close to the screen and we couldn't hold hands or talk during the movie - two things I never realized we did so often until today.

And finally, I have some conversations & observations to share!

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The scene: I'm driving behind some loaded trucks on a highway in the middle of nowhere. "Single Ladies" is on the radio and I'm demonstrating the dance motions to Sweetie when the trucks in front of us start braking to turn.

Sweetie: Slow down!
Me: I am. I'm braking. I'm braking while I'm dancing. I'm brake dancing!

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The scene: Giving a bouquet of peonies to a drag queen in celebration of her birthday.

Bernadette: They're beautiful! Are they from your yard?
Me: Yup!
Bernadette: They smell so good.
Me: Yeah, (Sweetie) said it smelled like old-lady and I said, "Then she'll LOVE it!"
Bernadette: *stink eye*

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Facebook observation: If you change your middle name to "DramaFreeZone", chances are you're anything but.
Posting one of these every minute for an hour aren't helping matters either:

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Frustration and Mormons (Not Correlated!)

We found out on Sunday night that our dog Max believes wind storms to be almost as scary as thunderstorms. Sweetie and I had enjoyed a great evening and finally laid down for sleep around 2am. Max decided at 2:30 that he needed consoling and jumped his gate. So I stayed on the couch and slept intermittently between his pacing fits every time a wind gust hit the house.

Monday morning I headed to my car bleary eyed and beaten, only to see that the recycle bin contents had been blown across 3 neighboring lawns.

And yes, it had occurred to me to put the heavy trash bags on top of the bin ...

... at about 2:00am. So there's that.

After picking up the recycling and wedging the bin against the house, it occurred to me that I still hadn't pulled cash for the office lunch. I specifically only wanted to pull $15 and had previously been able to do so at a few bank ATMs.

They apparently chose Monday as the day to thwart me. I went to 3 banks before giving up and heading across town to my last ditch effort which resulted in success!

Have I mentioned yet that I'm already running 20 minutes late to work by this point?

So I got the cash. Our office had lunch and I handed over my contribution to the boss's birthday lunch. How much was left over in my pocket? $7. Seriously. I could have just stopped at the first ATM and pulled $10 to begin with. I was so irritated. I'd love to say I was excited to have extra cash to spend but I didn't - I needed to buy stamps. Oh well, at least I had the money to buy stamps I guess :-)

All day long I looked forward to going home, picking up Sweetie, and heading out to watch Hunger Games at a theater 30 minutes away. When we got to the door, the manager came up and apologized because they had just cancelled the evening showing 10 minutes prior. I wanted to cry. Two days of sleep deprivation were catching up with me.

One of the awesome things about being an adult:

Consolation prize for two cruddy days in a row.

I can make a freaking root beer float whenever I damn well please and for whatever reason I deem appropriate! Consolation prize acquired. Then Sweetie and I watched a Netflix that's been sitting in our living room for almost 3 weeks. We watched The Tourist which was just good enough to give my attitude a much needed adjustment.

Yesterday I got frustrated again while trying to slog through the various prepay phone service options. When I got home, we took Max for a walk which helped alleviate the tension. I noticed the Peonies were blooming so I cut a few and brought them inside. They smell so beautiful!

Peonies from the yard

This morning, I went to my obgyn for then annual checkup. He asked again about my cholesterol. It's odd that he's concerned about that but I like that he takes an interest in my heatlth ouside the girly parts. At least I've got one doctor looking out for me!
He had a nurse practitioner (a woman, ugh) learning with him so I got everything twice. Woo! I'm pretty sure all women reading this understand that this is not a form of special treatment.
All that talk of cholesterol concerns had me craving crap food something fierce! I dug out enough change in my car to buy a double chocolate donut from Lamar's and ate it with satisfaction.

Tonight, Sweetie and I went with friends to the open house tour for the Kansas City Missouri Temple.

The tour consisted of a short video explaining why Mormons build temples and a little about their beliefs, followed by an hour guided tour explaining the purpose of each room. We were requested to not take pictures inside or I would show you my favorite parts, which consisted of paintings and architecture. I didn't think it was as architecturally beautiful as Catholic temples but was beautiful.

When we got home, Sweetie set right to work getting chickens in the oven to roast. They were on a good sale so she's roasting them, I'm carving them, then we'll freeze the chicken pieces in portions we can pull out for dinners. She just posted this image on Facebook so I guess it's time for me to get carving!

Winner winner chicken dinner!