Touching Base

the gym

I will see if I can make my 4th day in a row to the gym.  Normally by the week’s end, I am exhausted from work and going to the gym doesn’t seem appealing anymore.  I will muster up enough strength to put in my 40 minute work out tonight!!!  I have to. 

I am also going to try to go to the gym while I am in Las Vegas.  From my hotel on the strip, the gym is only 3.3 miles away.  I am bringing my gym clothes for motivation :)  Motivation is highly needed since there are endless buffets and late night eating is my all time worse.

making the drive….

Going to Las Vegas & making the long ass drive, anything over 5 hours is a long drive :(.  The luxury of driving is that you can leave whenever you want, take your time, & taking turns driving.  Yes, taking a plane is faster but then we will be without a car.  Having a car to tour Las Vegas/Henderson is so much easier and cheaper. 

a blizzard and hail

Sunday we woke to a foot of fresh powder.  It was a white winter wonderland and I haven’t been up to Truckee all season.  Yes folks- I did not snowboard at all :(.  Jason dropped me off at the outlets while he went to pick up his tuned skiis for next season.  While shopping it continued to dump snow, big huge wet flakes.  It was sticky, wet snow but it was dumping.  After doing our errands, we ate lunch and decided to get onto the road so we won’t be blocked in.  We made it through Blue Canyon just fine but they were turning people away that didn’t have 4 wheel or all wheel drive.  People didn’t plan for snow over the pass.  On the down grade near Colfax we hit a hail storm and it penetrated and bounced off the jeep pretty good.  I took video of the snow falling and the hail.  It was pretty intense at one point.

Free $$$$$$$$

Jason and I went to Truckee this weekend to stay at his parents cabin, take a mini vacation, site see and check out my brother’s new cabin just a mere 1 mile from his parents place.  His folks are in Arkansa so, we had the whole place to ourselves.  We drove up on Friday, got settled in and woke up to a sunny day on Saturday.  We had free $$ to spend at the North Star village.  We had these vertical lift coupons.  We spent $70 at Starbuck’s getting coffees, snacks and loads of beans.  Then, we spent $50 at this Deli and got some good food for lunch and dinner.  We headed back to North Star the following day because we had another $50 voucher which we used to purchase more coffee beans, got some snacks and coffee. 

The whole weekend only cost us $96.00 for two full tanks of gas. 

Shot dispenser

My neighbor bought us this shot dispenser for our Christmas present.  It’s a grand thing, I must add.  It hold 6 inverted 750 ml alcohol bottles.  It fills this small cyclinder with one shot, then you push this lever up and dispense the shot of alcohol into your glass.  It spins, so you can rotate the bottles around and it has this tight seal so that no alcohol will drip out.  I love it, we love it. :)  We have this tall wooden bar, the doors open and close to reveal and conceal the alcohol hiding behind the doors.  The top folds down and makes like this buffet stand which the dispenser can sit on.  Sometimes Jason and I will be watching TV and one of us will state “I am getting a drink from the bar”.  Its funny

References

While at my party on Saturday, Juli and I were talking about referencing- people that is.  Before I started hanging out with my friend Juli, there was my friend Jennifer from college.  As soon as I started hanging out with Juli’s friend Jennifer, I started calling her Riggs when talking with Juli so there wouldn’t be any confusion.  Now, Jennifer moved to Vegas and I see Riggs more than I see Jennifer.  Now, I call Riggs- Jennifer and I reference Jennifer by calling her Szabo. It’s quite funny.  Jennifer, Juli and I had a fun converation regarding this on several occassions.  You may not find it funny but I guess you had to be there.

lazy Sunday…

What’s to do the next day after a big party?  Sleep in of course :)  I didn’t go to bed last night until close to 3 am.  Even though I am crawling out of bed now, I don’t have anything to do but clean up after my party. 

My fondue party was loads of fun.  My friends starting showing up after 6 pm.  The tables were set for grilling, dunking, dipping and savoring.  There was a grill station to grill meats, shrimp, vegetables on the big griddle.  Then, there was a hot oil station to fry vegetables, shrimp, garlic, onions etc, with dipping sauces of course :), what’s a party without sauce?  The oil was seasoned with sesame oil- very yummy.  Jason prepared this ultra hot habanero cheese fondue that was mouth burning good.  The next station was the classic swiss/garlic/chardonnay cheese fondue.  These two stations had 3 different kinds of bread- my rustic whole grain bread and Gina brought a pepper sourdough bread with a classic french bread.  YUMMY!  There were zuchini, cauliflower, brocoli, asparagus spears, tomatos and carrots.  Another kind of sauce included a veggie dip for the carrots and tomatos.  The savory station included my homemade recipe of dark and milk chocolate melted with heavy cream and a splash of Kalua.  Dipping items were short bread cookies, lady fingers, marshmellows, chocolate cookie wafers and pineapple.  My friend Camille didn’t bring any strawberries but the savory station had plenty.  We had plenty of drinks- sodas, wine, hard alcohol.  There will be another post regarding the hard alcohol :) 

Juli, Gina, Jennifer and I danced to 80’s and 90’s tunes.  While the boys and Sheli devoured the savory station.  I even had a Snicker’s Cake.  By this point, every one was lit up on something.  Gina and Jennifer were the only sober ones :)  I was a cheap date considering I was recovering from my cold so I was on cold medicine while consuming wine and mixed cocktails- it was fun

After Gina, Jennifer, Jim, Jake, and Juli left around midnight, Sheli, myself, Jeff, Brian, Kevin and Jason went outside to sit around the firepit.  The boys proceeded to smoke cigars and the noise carried on into the night.  I guess my neighbors heard us being loud around 2 am.  Hey, it’s not like we party like this every night.  Sheli left around 2 am.  I then went into the house around 2:30 am.  The boys didn’t come in until close to 3 am.  Now, you can understand why I am not crawling out of bed until now.