Friday Night Photos #137

This is probably going to be a very long post, because I haven't done a Friday Night Photos since mid-January. I'm actually writing this in the morning, so it'll technically be Friday *Morning* Photos, but same thing. I'll get right into it...

On Sunday, Jerry and I took the kids to see Bill Burr at Little Caesar's Arena in Detroit. We bought tickets for Christmas (all of us really like Bill Burr). It was fun! I love spending time with the kids because it's rare now, especially for the four of us to be together at the same time.

First, we went to dinner. The place I'd carefully chosen--Bobcat Bonnie's--was CLOSED because of a St. Patrick's Day parade in Corktown. I didn't have a backup plan, so we just parked downtown and started walking toward the arena, hoping to find a place to eat before we got there.

We went into a random restaurant (I can't remember what it was called) and it ended up being a terrible dining experience. We were there an hour and a half because our server was new. I am always patient with new servers because I've been a server in several restaurants and I know what it's like! However, there were countless tables that came in after us, ate their meal and left while we were still waiting. Eli and I never ended up getting food because "they forgot" to cook it!

However, we still had a lot of fun while we were sitting there. Eli came back from the bathroom and said there was a bathroom attendant in there--he'd never seen one before. It wasn't the kind of restaurant that I would imagine to have an attendant (it was basically a sports bar), so I was curious. The attendant gave pumped the soap into Eli's hands and gave him a spray of cologne. Then offered for him to buy cigarettes or vapes (among other assorted things).

I asked Eli if he'd tipped him, because while I taught my kids about tipping for various services, I guess I never thought about bathroom attendants. He hadn't tipped, so he went back to the bathroom to tip him. Then he came back with a pack of cigarettes! None of us smoke, and while I don't want to offend anyone, I simply cannot stand being around cigarette smoke. I asked Eli why on earth he would buy them, and this was his response: "Because how many people will ever really be able to say they bought a pack of cigarettes from a possibly-shady bathroom attendant at a bar in downtown Detroit?" He had a point! We all laughed about it.

At the arena, it felt so weird--in a very cool way--that not a single person was allowed to use a cell phone once you walk inside. And to make sure of it, they made everybody put their phones in these special bags that lock; you can't get your phone out until you're leaving the arena and someone unlocks it for you. It felt like we were back in the 90's (the best decade ever) when people actually talked to each other instead of looking at the phones. (I don't care how old that makes me sound.)

Speaking of spending time together, Eli had winter break for a few days and I asked him if he would want to go see a matinee with me (fully expecting time to say no). His friends must have been busy that day because he immediately said yes, haha. I didn't even have any idea what was playing, but after looking it up, I thought The Beekeeper looked like a movie we'd both probably like. It was good!

Funny story: I was going to make popcorn one day because Noah had made some the day before and it sounded good. When I got out the air popper, I saw that the little measuring cup on top was cracked and slightly melted--I immediately knew what had happened, because it happened before. Noah had put coconut oil in it to let the steam melt the coconut oil while it popped.

The other popper that we use has a spot on top to put butter, where it melts and drops down into the popcorn while it pops, so he probably thought it was okay to do it with this one. But I've told him and Eli AND Jerry that we can't do that--it's not meant for it. So, when I saw that the bottom of the air popper had coconut oil in one of the holes, I realized that the coconut oil and gone all the way through the machine.

I was mad that he hadn't listened to me! So, I wrote a note on a Post-It saying, "Do NOT put butter or oil anywhere in or on this!" The note wouldn't stick well, so I put it inside the popper--how can you miss it when it's where you have to put the popcorn?

A few days later, I pulled it out again and measured out the popcorn. I started the popper and about 20 seconds later, there was a burning smell. At first I thought it was the coconut oil inside the popper--and then I remembered my note! HAHAHA, I pulled it out and it was burned. Oops.

I finally took the leap and deleted Facebook. I've disliked Facebook for probably 10 years now--people are SO MEAN to each other and I don't like the negativity--but I was worried that I'd lose touch with some people. A friend of mine deleted his and when I saw that, I decided I was going to get rid of mine too. The people who want to keep in touch with me can always contact me in other ways. 

I didn't just deactivate it--I went through and deleted every. single. thing. in my activity log going back to 2007! I saved a lot of my old status updates--ones that were funny stories about my kids or just random things here and there. This one made me laugh when I saw it--so random!

Before deleting Facebook, I saw this and I was so excited--I hadn't even read the caption and I thought, "THAT WAS MY FAVORITE MOVIE AS A KID!" I'll tell you the answer below the picture if you're interested ;)

This is the movie D.A.R.Y.L. (Data Analyzing Robot Youth Life-form). I could probably quote this entire movie, word for word.

I bought this fabric the day that Jerry and I went to JoAnn's (when I taught him to sew). If you're not familiar with the TV show Friends, then it won't make sense--but as you know, I'm a huge Friends fan. I want to do something cool with it, but I'm not sure what. If you have suggestions, please share! I have four yards of it, so it can be relatively large--my thought was pajamas, but I'd like to do something more fun.

One food that I have found nearly impossible to find a good vegan version of is cheese. I've made SO many recipes and haven't found any that really replicate the texture and taste. I read on Reddit about Miyoko's pourable mozzarella for pizza, and the reviews really made me want to try it. I couldn't find it anywhere around here (they didn't even have it at Whole Foods in Ann Arbor!) but Jerry finally found some at a Kroger near where he works.

We tried it on pizza and I was very impressed. It was definitely the best one we've tried so far. I don't expect vegan versions of animal-based products to taste the same (although a lot of them do!) and this one wasn't a perfect replica. But I'm not trying to find an exact replica; I just wanted something that tasted really good. And this one absolutely does.

Jerry and I recently bought four different brands of vegan cheddar so that we could do a taste test for my blog. The cheddar recipes *always* end up tasting like nutritional yeast to me (I like nutritional yeast, but it has a very distinct flavor--and to me, not at all cheese-like). So we're going to try out the cheese this weekend and I'll write a post like I did when I had a little competition between two vacuums, haha. 

I saw this Eggstractor at Goodwill and it made me laugh because of a brief moment ages ago that Jerry never lets me forget. There was a commercial for the Eggstractor on TV and I was only half paying attention. When they demonstrated it, they put the egg in the top and pushed it through, where it came out at the bottom (a hard-boiled egg without the shell).

For a second, my mind was baffled because I thought the egg was raw going in and hard-boiled coming out. I know that makes no sense and sounds completely stupid, but it was literally a moment's thought. I made the mistake of telling Jerry and we had a good laugh. Still, though, he loves an opportunity to bring it up ;)

I was looking for some pictures in a box from my parents' house and I came across this one of me, Nathan, Brian, and Jeanie (my siblings). If you can manage to ignore my bangs, you can see this is what early Photoshopping looked like--BAHAHA. I think my mom had mailed this to my dad's dad in Florida, who has since passed away--she must not have had a good picture of the four of us, so this was a solution. My hair though.

I was grocery shopping when I noticed the butternut squash selection (or "squatter-nut-bash", like Jerry and I call it--a Friends reference). When choosing a butternut squash, is it best to choose based on length or girth? Hmmm. (I'm pretty sure I have an inner 12-year old boy that gets a giggle out of things like this.)

I would never normally post a picture of my ugly feet, but I thought I'd show what Reynaud's looks like. When my feet get cold, they turn a translucent-white color. It's extremely annoying--it feels numb but painful at the same time and nothing helps except heat. It's the worst on my toes and my heels. I get it in my fingers sometimes, too. I love to show my family because it freaks them out every time, haha. This had never happened to me until I lost the weight in 2009-2010. I've had it ever since!

Jerry and I were playing a game called Decipher one day. It's kind of like a combination of the NY Times' Wordle (a word puzzle) and Battleship. There is a divider so you can't see your opponent's side of the board. You choose a five-letter word that your opponent will try to guess based on hit-or-miss strategy. After 5-6 turns, I noticed that our patterns were *very* similar. I paused for a moment before asking Jerry, "Is your word QUEST?" and he said, "How did you know already?!!" WE HAD CHOSEN THE SAME GODDAMN WORD. What are the odds?

I may have shared this already, but she's so cute that I'll post it again. My mom took Riley to a "princess" event (a sort of party for kids to dress in their princess costumes and do princess-y things). She asked me to style Riley's hair, and the costume included a long, blonde braid with a clip--I had no idea what to do with it. I ended up making two french braids and then clipping the fake one in the center. After she put on her costume, my heart just melted--she is SO CUTE. She was so proud to wear it, too.

Just another board game afternoon. We love Ticket to Ride and I noticed a version called Ticket to Ride: Rails and Sails, which had a two-sided game board. One side is the Great Lakes, with Michigan right in the center! Naturally, I had to buy it. It was fun to play one of our favorite games and see the familiar areas.

The rest of these photos are of pets, so feel free to skip over if they aren't your thing ;)

When I saw this picture of Joey on my camera roll, I wondered why I took it--he's not doing anything special... just lying there.

After seeing the next photo, though, I remembered exactly why. It wasn't just Joey there; Chick was lying with him!

Chick *adores* Joey and, thankfully, Joey doesn't seem to mind.

I love watching Chick and Duck groom each other. It's so sweet! Chick likes to groom both Duck and Joey, haha. Until I took this picture, Duck was lying there with his eyes closed, looking super relaxed.

I was lying on my bed talking on the phone one day and Duck wanted my attention SO badly. It drives me crazy when he gets jealous of anything that takes my attention away from him. He clearly wanted me to notice him, because he climbed on my knees and managed to turn a couple of full circles like that. He stayed there until I was done with my call.

A couple of days after I missed making the flight to Hilton Head, I discovered that there really was a reason why I wasn't meant to get on the flight after all. Noah called me, very upset, saying that there was something wrong with Phoebe. He said she threw up 6-8 times that morning and she was hiding. When he tried to get her out from under the couch, she growled at him and didn't want to be touched.

Phoebe is 16 years old and has kidney disease, so this is going to happen sooner or later. But Noah felt so bad, thinking that he did something to cause her to get sick. I told him I'd come over and get Phoebe and take her to the vet. She didn't look good--I could tell she was dehydrated (remember what happened a couple of years ago?) and she had that same disheveled look that she had back then.

I told Noah to go to work and I'd call him from the vet's office. I had two thoughts: 1) her kidney disease took a fast turn for the worse and this may be the end for her, and 2) I hope this wasn't due to a pesticide. Noah had told me about a week prior that they had ants in the apartment (they're on the ground floor) so he bought a spray for them. I immediately asked about Phoebe and he said he followed the instructions on the can and he put Phoebe in another room until it dried (per the instructions).

Still, I was worried. I told him that if they need to spray in the future, that I'll just bring Phoebe over here for a couple of days. If her being sick was due to the pesticide, I did *not* want Noah to know that, though. He would never forgive himself. I told the vet about it and she asked about the ingredients. They did several tests and, thankfully, they found nothing to be wrong with her! She was a little dehydrated, so they gave her subcutaneous fluids. I went in there thinking she was going to die, and then $500 later, learned she was totally fine. Her bloodwork even showed an improvement since January when Noah and I brought her to a check-up.

The fluids did the trick (like they did last time) and she's back to the normal Phoebe. 

Jerry and I were watching The Lion King one afternoon and Chick was SO fascinated by it. He watched probably 75% of the movie while sitting on his scratcher. He especially loved the part when Simba and Nala reunited and it became kind of a romance between them. Jerry and I were cracking up, talking about how Chick is into romance movies and now he's going to wish he had a girlfriend.

I really wanted to build something one day but I had no wood to work with other than a ton of 2x4 scraps. I decided to make little night tables for Jerry and I because after lowering the bed, our nightstands were too high and it was annoying. They aren't exactly pretty--I haven't sanded them or painted them or anything yet--and when it gets warmer outside, I'll do it. But we really like them!

Anyway, the cats watched me build them (in my living room while watching a movie, ha) and when I was done, I brought one into the bedroom, then walked out to get the other. When I came back into the bedroom, I noticed Chick had already made himself at home in the first one. I set down the other, then grabbed my phone to take a picture of Chick. After I took the picture, I looked at the other and Duck was inside, just like Chick. To the cats, the tables were like cardboard boxes--they just just can't resist getting inside. It took all of five seconds before the cats were in there!

Okay, that's all I've got. And that's a LOT. Have a great weekend! xo