columbus day weekend

I say this every year, but God Bless Christopher Columbus. I love having this random holiday off. And, with CJ working both Saturday and Sunday this weekend, it'll give us a day to spend together, even if we intend to work most of the day.

So, what have I actually gotten done this weekend?

So far, not much.

We went on our weekly date on Friday night. I finally convinced CJ to take me to the Grand Traverse Pie Company for dinner (at the corner of 31 & Stop 11), but turns out, it's less of a sit down restaurant and more of a Panera/Paradise Bakery lookalike -- and not what I had in mind for date night. So we ended up at BJ's, which seems to be our stand-by place anymore. Instead of seeing a movie, we ended up at Target, because our hard water has destroyed our eight-month old coffee maker. Even though we just cleaned it out not too long ago, it takes approximately 45 minutes to make slightly over four cups of coffee. So, it's a good thing that CJ doesn't drink it much; otherwise, we'd be waiting two hours for the full twelve cups to brew. 45 minutes for coffee was pretty much unacceptable, so we got a new coffee pot plus a water filter. And then we ended up a Petco where we priced crates and bought Bridget part of her Halloween costume (which she hates, of course, but it's funny).

Saturday, I finally made it to the grocery store. It'd been at least three or four weeks since I'd last been for a major trip, so we were out of all of the staples ... milk (well, we had 2% for CJ, but that's also unacceptable), orange juice, coffee creamer (almost), butter (CJ grumbled at me this week after he'd already made toast and then couldn't find the butter), and so on... I did save $46 with the Kroger card, plus I saved another $24 with coupons. I really should have kept track of how much I've saved year to date...

Oh -- I also made these "monster cookies" (PB mix, chocolate chip mix, oatmeal, & M&Ms) to take to the fire station and then mini carrot cakes ... which didn't work out, unfortunately.

Today, my friend, Amanda, and I made it up to the northside to try out Whole Foods and Trader Joe's. Amanda's on a mostly vegetarian/vegan diet, not really by choice, so she made out with some oddities that her new recipes call for. I made it back with some tortilla soup and spinach artichoke hummus. If I'm up on that side of town in the future, I might stop by, but I won't make a special trip there, especially since honeycrisp apples were $1.49 each!

Since I have tomorrow off, I actually intend to get work done. I need to tackle the never-ending pile of laundry, the growing mess in the kitchen, and the floors need vacuumed. I think CJ plans to finish his workbench and then spray our yard for weeds and fertilize it (Mom, please let Dad know this will be taken care of so he can quit bugging me about it). I think we also want to go see Couples Retreat, and then we're taking my car to get the brakes replaced. And then there's the never-ending pile of homework we both have to do too. And Henry needs some attention (which is part of his problem, I realize). Fun day off after all...

Anyway, I hope people still read the blog and I'm not just spouting off for my own pleasure... :)