Bessie's Back!

Whew. What a packed weekend!

Friday afternoon I picked up Bessie. After 4 weeks of repairs, my car is finally all fixed up! I'm thankful to have my AWD back in time for snow. I also baked some more oatmeal chocolate chip and coconut cookies to take over to a friend's housewarming party. Their new house is super cute. Jake and I chatted with new friends for a few hours, then headed home.

Saturday was an epic date! We caught the afternoon showing of Harry Potter. I decided to go all out and got us popcorn, candy and a soda to share from the concession stand. When did a medium soda go up to $5? Holy hellfires, that's expensive. Now I remember why I sneak drinks and snacks in usually. ;) The movie was spectacular! I just reread HP7 about a week ago, so the book was fresh in mind. The movie stayed pretty true to the book, even if they have to gloss over certain parts (Kreacher's redemption! I was sad we didn't get to see that evolution.)

After that amazingness, we headed to Pearl Street Pub for an appetizer and some drinks. Our reservations weren't until 8:30. We enjoyed an antipasto platter that was delicious while watching the Irish beat Army! We then moseyed over to the Black Pearl for dinner. Even with our reservation, we had to wait about 20 minutes. Totally worth it. The meal was very good. I had hangar steak while Jake enjoyed some lamb. We both really enjoyed eavesdropping on the couple eating next to us - middle age, first date, met online, she wouldn't stop talking about how music fills her soul in the church of nature. Oh right, the couple on our other side didn't use all of their giftcard, so they gave it to us. SCORE! $7.50 we didn't have to pay for.

Sunday dawned bright and early for a ski day! We drove up to Breck. Traffic was painless, but the lift lines were killer. Breck only had a few lifts open, so those were packed. We started off on a run that I thought was blue, but was actually black. I managed to wipe out twice (lost my ski once and bruised my knee on the second fall). Not feeling particularly graceful, I decided I needed a bit more of a warm up, so Jake headed off to some blacks while I cruised some easier blues. We met up for lunch and then got lost and headed down a black run full of moguls. I made it all the way down without falling!

Great weekend! I go home tomorrow to celebrate with the family. So excited!!

one week til turkey!

I'm so excited for Thanksgiving! I go home Tuesday night. I'm so thankful for my family. I can't wait to see them all.

We're going over to the cousins for actual Thanksgiving dinner, but then my immediate family will make our own on Friday. Thanksgiving is my dad's favorite and he loves leftover turkey. So, my brother is brining and roasting a turkey a la Alton Brown and we're whipping up a few sides for our own feast. :)

Of course, before feasting on Friday, there is Black Friday Shopping! Mom and I always get up early and go out. We never go to crazy places and wait in line, though. More like Kohls, Old Navy and Target. Mostly we outfit her Christmas kid. This Friday is going to be packed; I'm also buying my wedding dress (hopefully!).

Oh! News that makes me happy! I was going through my closet for items to donate and pulled several pairs of jeans, including one pair that has always been too tight. Like, I can wear them for an hour and then have to take them off. I thought to myself, might as well try them on and see if all the running has slimmed me down. YES! They fit! AND are comfortable. Hurray for running! We'll see if they still are comfortable after Thanksgiving. ;)

How excited are you for the Holidays?

in a fight

I am in a fight with weather.com.

Yesterday morning, they said 0% chance of precipitation. I decided to brave the cold and wear cute ballet flats instead of boots. As soon as I get in the car, it starts snowing. Boo.

Today, again very small chance of precipitation, 10%. I head out for my run and see VERY dark skies to the north. I decide to cut the run short and go home to do weights. 5 minutes into weights, the wind picks up and sleet starts. Boo.

Expect a letter if this happens again, weather.com. My wrath is great and terrible.

Sunday cookies

Yesterday, I got bored.

Jake was busy making things explode online.

I wanted cookies.

So I baked.


Without a mixer.

I own neither a Kitchen-Aid Stand Mixer (my dream lover) nor a hand mixer. Both are on the registry!



Creaming butter and sugar was a bit rough, but I managed.

Visions of warm cookies kept me going.

Lots of stirring.


Oatmeal chocolate chip .


Not the prettiest cookies, but so tasty.



I won't tell you how many I've eaten, but the answer is more than a few.

Good run and great job Irish!

Saturday was lovely. I went for a long run in the morning and actually felt very confident throughout the whole thing. I discovered I need to bring more kleenex with me on cold runs; my noise got very runny!


After the run, I quickly showered and headed out to the ND game watch. Jake joined me after finishing up a few errands. Y'all, the Irish played better than they have in years. Special teams was on the ball and defense only allowed a field goal. ND had not won against a ranked team since 2006! Way to go, boys and keep it up!

Go, Fight, Win!

Let's Go Irish!

Hopefully, there will be cause for push ups! That's me, several years ago, after a touchdown. I think it was 35 push ups. One of the perks of being small, you get chosen to go up.

Even though our QB and main running back are injured, hopefully we'll play well.

not yet

Skiing yesterday was a blast. We only went for about 5 hours. You have to ease yourself back into the all-day sessions. I'm still a bit sore though. I did some yoga last night to loosen up and I think it helped.

The plan was to go for a run today, but it hasn't happened yet. Jake's furnace broke this morning (29* outside), so I've been waiting around all day for calls from the landlord and the repair man. Repair guy finally called around noon to tell me he'd be here at 1:30. At 3, he called to tell me he was running late (no duh) and that he'd be here by 4. Hopefully, he actually will be here at 4, and I can sneak in a run!

Anybody have anything fun planned for the weekend?

SKI DAY!

Hurray for Veterans Day! Not only do we celebrate those who've fought for our country, but its a federal holiday. Jake and our friend M have the day off, so the three of us are hitting the slopes. This is really cool, because M took us out for our first time ever in Colorado, exactly a year ago.





Here's hoping I don't bust my butt!

Sexuality and the Church

Hello my dears!

Emily has been posting a great series on female sexuality and the Church. As a female who was brought up in a church and attended youth groups, this has particular interest to me. My youth group focused on abstinence as the best way (but not the only possible way). Still, it makes me wonder if any of my hangups are due to these teachings? I'll admit, I was one of those 13 year olds yelling "Sex is great, in the bonds of holy matrimony!" while at youth conferences.

The whole concept of determining the 'correct' sexual attitudes based on the Bible is fascinating to me. Many of the dos and don'ts regarding sex are found in Leviticus (old Testament book full of rules, written after the exodus from Egypt). This time frame focused on growing God's people into a nation that outnumbered the stars. Many of the rules focus on the way to procreate and spread man's seed. Not fun reading.

Then there is Song of Songs. It's a love poem. More traditional scholars argue that it is a love poem between God (the man) and the Church (the lady). I believe it is simply a love poem about lovers. It's beautiful (and hot!). I do believe sex between two lovers can be holy.

I don't have time to get into a full treatise right now. If you're looking for detail, check out Emily's posts!

Vegan Chocolate Pudding

And here it is! Jenna's Vegan Chocolate Pudding

What you'll need:

I had to use a double boiler. It was my first time and though I was scared of it, I managed to use it fine. A bit scary still...

The end result - rave reviews from everyone who tried it. Again, no final picture, because that's how I roll. :)

Sunny November in the Park

Totally missed posting yesterday. Whoops. I have a good excuse though. We met some friends in the park around 11am. It was incredibly sunny and 78* - in November in Denver. Weird.

We all brought some snacks and games and spent the day hanging out. Around 5, everybody got hungry. We trekked over to Jake's place and ordered Kaos pizza. We then spent about 5 hours playing cards. My team did not play very well, but fun was still had by all. By the time everyone left, it was late and time for this girl to go to bed.

Engagement photos at 2 in the same park. I'm still deciding what to wear. When I scheduled the photo shoot, I assumed it would be cold. Now that it is going to be 70 +, I have to reevaluate my outfit.

I'll post the vegan chocolate pudding later!

Vegan Feast Recipes, Part 1

For the Vegan Feast Wednesday night, I made The Pioneer Woman's Baba Ghanoush, and Jenna's Channa Masala. I'll save the amazing dessert for another post!

I put my faith in the Pioneer Woman and broiled the eggplants until they were shriveled . This took about an hour in my oven. And constant checking to make sure the kitchen was not on fire.

I think the broiling made a HUGE difference. I could taste a hint of char in the Baba Ghanoush. Guests said it was the creamiest they'd ever tasted! Two thumbs up!

Mise en place for channa masala. It was easy to do. I followed Jenna's recipe, but substituted olive oil for the butter for the onions (which she explicitly said NOT to do) and left out a jalapeno. It was plenty hot. :)

I prepped as much as I could before company arrived. It really helped me be able to be part of the fun chatting before dinner, instead of stuck in the kitchen the entire time. I served it with brown rice and plenty of cilantro. I had to add a dollop of Greek yogurt to mine to cut the spiciness (I'm a wimp).

Um... apparently I need to work on my food blogging skills. I failed at getting any finished shots. Wah Wah. To make it up to you, here is some shoe porn.

I was on a mission for gray boots. I finally found this fun pair at DSW.

Sorry for the glare! I obviously need to work on my camera skills. The bow is my favorite part.

I went back today to try and find a pair of black boots to wear with my winter skirts, and some new winter boots. Fail. My old black boots literally fell apart on me last year. The search will continue!

Success!

Last night's dinner party was officially a success. I'll share recipes throughout the week.

Here are some pictures from our weekend in the mountains. We hiked around Lake Dillon. Great view was enhanced by the recent snowfall.

Cuteness. :)

I'm waiting for my boss to get back to me so I can get some paperwork filed tonight. I hate waiting! Gh.

Before and after

I decided my hair needed some shaping. I'm trying to grow it out a bit before the wedding, so I didn't want anything drastic.

Here's before: (just out of bed - no product)

Here's after with three different products in it: (what a difference natural lighting makes! I swear I didn't get my hair highlighted.)

Can you tell a difference? I wasn't crazy about how she styled it. I think she was a bit nonplussed when I told her I don't straighten my hair, nor do I use a diffuser on my blow dryer (I don't even use a blow dryer!). I think she realized I meant it when I said I'm lazy about my hair. I do like the cut. The bottom layer, which isn't very curly, was getting a bit shaggy. Best part - the cut was only $15! I go to the Aveda school and students get to practice on me. :)

After my haircut, I went to a bridal salon in Denver to check out their options. Unfortunately, they didn't have the dress I wanted to try on. In fact, they didn't have that many dresses, period. Oh well.

I moved on to preparing for tonight's dinner. We're having friends over and I'm making a Vegan Feast! Well, three courses. Here's a hint for the last course. Jenna's Vegan Chocolate Pudding

I currently have eggplants broiling in the oven. Stay tuned to see if I burned the place down!

True Story: I can always finish a burrito

Due to craziness at work and lack of groceries at home, I grabbed lunch out on Monday. I decided on a Chipotle burrito to keep me full in case I had to work late (spoiler: I did). This reminded me of a story. . .

Senior year of college, I went to dinner and a movie with a boy (I thought it was a date. I was wrong. Awkward.) He said "Let's go to Chipotle, I have a coupon!" Keep in mind, Chipotle was new at the time, and a fun place to go.

When we get in line, boy asks if I want to split a burrito. Um... sure? Remember, I was on "date behavior." Boy says he can never come close to finishing one of their huge burritos. cough*wuss*cough

I think I talked him into buying chips and salsa to go along with our one burrito. Pretty sure I did this by telling him I'd pay for it.

We then saw SAW (the original) and he walked me home, where he made it clear this was not a date by talking about the girl he did like. Lame.

Moral of the story: never trust a boy who can't finish a burrito.

National Blog Posting Month (NaBloPoMo)

Goal for November: post something every day!

The weekend was lovely. The future-in-laws were in town, so we headed up to the mountains to have some fun. Full recap later - once I download pictures. :)

Halloween was very quiet compared to previous years. Jake's parents left Halloween afternoon, so we did not venture out to any outrageous Halloween parties on Saturday night. We did watch Paranormal Activity, which was ok. I thought it would be scarier. We did drag ourselves out of the house to go to a spooky dance show. The David Tyler Dance Theater did a collection of spooky dances (think nightmares, Dracula, ghosts, and Medusa). For ten bucks, it was a fun way to spend an evening. Before we left, I gave out candy to six trick-or-treaters. I then left the candy bowl on the stoop. Jake thought the bowl would still be fairly full when we got back. Wrong. Seven pieces of candy remained.

Work today is go-go-go. We have several motions and responses due today, so drafts are being fired back and forth. Fingers crossed it all gets done!