The weather is frigid. The fireplace is warm. The family is together. A wonderful winter day.
We had a great dinner at Burntwood tonight. Because it is Valentine’s Day, it is pretty busy. I was lucky to get a reservation when someone just called to cancel theirs. Leo went through the snow storm and got his new Altima earlier. We drove in the brand new car and half worried about the road condition the first time we took it out. It’s a nice car I’m sure we will enjoy it for the next few years.
Kieth has been our waiter before and he recognized us. He took very good care of us and helped us enjoyed our dinner. We reflected on how a well run restaurant makes their customer feeling taken care of and relaxed. They had a lot of servers and staff for different tasks and they just make things work smoothly. The valet brushed the snow off our car as we were leaving, a nice touch in the end. We will go back again and again. Food was also great. We have never been disappointed.
Went to my second trainer session today. It didn’t agree with me as well as last one. Right off the bat, the raising the legs off the ground for 6 inches hurt the back of my neck. It is interesting what meant to be an exercise for the core muscles strained my neck and my back. I don’t think that is a good one for me in the future. Or was it the push up on the ball that did it? Anyways, I felt a bit of a headache right away and it stayed with me after the workout and at lunch. Even afterwards when I got home, I felt a bit ill. My stomach felt a bit queasy too.
I took a shower and a nap. It helped but my neck still feels strained. I cooked some pasta with frozen grilled chicken. A simple dish to use whatever we have. Not very tasty but it’s food that filled us. Because my body doesn’t feel great, I wasn’t really in the mood to cook. But I promised Leo to cook the chicken which he said he isn’t good at putting things together like me. When I went to cook though, I didn’t find much to use anyway, Brussels sprouts, onions were sliced and stirred fried with the frozen chicken thrown in later, soy sauce, hot sauce garlic with penne pasta. It doesn’t have much rich flavor and all the bacon was gone too. I would usually cook some bacon to add more flavor to a dish. So it wasn’t a good dish by my standard. But it was good enough to fill the tummy. Probably won’t cook for a while. It is getting to me again lately. My dislike for cooking is still alive and well.
Leo successfully negotiated for a Nissan Altima and in the spirit of celebration we went to Bistro on Main after he got home. We both got the three course lunch. Soup and short rib for him and salad and fish for me. Then we both got cheesecake for dissent. All for under $14 dollars each. It made us wonder why we didn’t come here more often. They always have very tasty food here and good drinks and friendly staff. For a while, Christa, the bar tender, remember Leo for always ordering a hamburger on Mondays. Their $5 dollar burger on Mondays was a big hit for Leo. And it is a tasty good burger too.
Of course I came home and took a nap after the spicy Lemonade I had. Wanted to get my monopod fixed or looked at but Campus Camera closed before I got there. It was around 5p so they must have a 9-5 kind of hours. I couldn’t find any sign on the door. So I’ll have to try again another time. Bought this monopod a while ago, but only have used it a few times. Now I can’t get it retracted totally. Maybe there is some trick that I don’t know of. I’m hoping it is anyway.
Wanted to eat healthy this day, so we went to Rocknes for salad. Have been home for a few days waiting for a package. To be honest, I wouldn’t send things via USPS in the future. The package tracking system was inaccurate and sometimes went back to contradict itself. In the beginning, it was showing to have left a facility in transit to the next. Two days later, it was back at the facility and left again. Duh? How could it leave a place twice! Then it was just not updated for a couple of days and suddenly showing how for delivery. I was excited and canceled my prescheduled lessons and waited at home. It never showed up!! The next day when I called the local post office, they said it was being forwarded to another address. It took several other persistent checking and calling to get the package to come back and finally delivered to us. This was a first class registered mail. I can’t imagine how it would be if it were just a regular mail. We would probably still be wondering where it is.
So after being forced to stay home for 5 days, I finally was able to get out for lunch without fearing I would miss a delivery. It also makes me reflect on people who are in nursing homes that cannot go out on their own for extended period of time. I can finally understand why so many people hate the idea of living in a nursing home. When freedom is taken away, life gets harder to bear.
It’s a snowy day and we decided not to go up to Beachwood for the monthly olive garden group dinner and went to Bistro on Main in Kent. It was cheap date night, three course dinner with a bottle of wine for $35. Not a bad deal.
And everything was delicious, we had a great time. The business was slow probably because of the weather. But the mushroom and goat cheese pizza was Deelicious!
Yes, I’m being a child again learning to color. Have not been aware that adult coloring is a popular activity to relax the mind. But I have been wanting to learn to color. Learn what colors go together as pleasant to me. I don’t know yet. But I’ve made the first step. Using the prismacolor color pencils and Monalisa odorless paint thinner with a paper stump to blend. I did my first coloring. It involves a lot of thinking still, picking colors that I am not sure will go together or not. But the end result is pleasing to me. And I think I will do more. Hopefully a lot more.
Today, I finished the quilt. Well the top of the quilt anyways. Eunice has been patient with me watching me cut, sew, measure in record slow time. And she still smiled, joked and told stories while I busied myself cutting or sewing the pieces. It was a wonderful class and I totally enjoyed it and I learned a ton of techniques. She designed this quilt to show different cutting and sewing techniques. I had a ball with each row and didn’t feel it was hard while I was doing it. Not sure I remember all the things she showed me but I think they will come back when I make more quilts.
Today we did the borders. I liked a smaller maroon border outside of the brown border to further define the edge. And after the final border was sewn, I like it better now. It warms up the piece actually. At first I thought I would not use it as the color didn’t seem to match the rows. But I think it is ok looking at it as a whole.
Quite excited.
Now what would I do for the next one!
Yes, it’s kind of late for the new year. But I finally made it to the gym today. Talked to the trainer rep and filled out the forms. They will begin by giving me an assessment then we will start the sessions. Kids bought me 12 half hour sessions! I know it will kick me into action. And it finally did. Intention has been there, just didn’t put it into action.
Since we weren’t going to start the training sessions for a while, I went swimming. And my luck had it, there was one lane open for me. Did my 6 laps for the lightest swim and went to the whirlpool and let the stream hit my shoulder and back for a few minutes. Two places that give me regular discomfort. While sitting there, I asked myself why I didn’t come more often. The view was great, the whirlpool was great. The swim made me feel good. Laziness!
The When Frogs Sing asked us to have a year long project. I picked “The Artist Way“. Maybe too ambitious since I am NOT an artist. But it interests me and excites me to follow along and see if there is actually any artist nature in me. Seems like there is something in there that has been trying to come out through some kind of channel, photography, blogging, now journaling. Something is trying to speak to me and I haven’t found a way for it to come out yet. So let’s see what will happen this year.
I have tried a few fountain pens even paid for a nice Pilot Falcon. But none of them really suits me. I do like the italic nib on Lamys. And that has been the only pen I use on a regular basis. The other day I got an email from jetpens and somehow I landed on the preppy page. Because it is only $3 a pen, I ordered a couple to try. One with extra fine nib, one with fine nib. I fully expected to like the extra fine nib cause I usually don’t like anything other than extra fine or fine. But to my surprise, I found I like the fine nib better. Again, I normally use converter with bottled ink, but I like this purple color just fine and would probably use the cartridge for refill in the future.
I am really pleasantly surprised at this. Love to find something this inexpensive and yet such a joy to use.