always looking for that silver lining

our second day of social distancing happened to be st. patrick's day.  now even though we don't have a kitchen right now, i do still have my trusty instant pot(s).  and because i apparently feel really strongly about keeping our corned beef & cabbage tradition alive despite the remodel and COVID-19, i cautiously headed to the grocery store to pick up supplies to make dinner that night.

i did have my green on, but never did take a picture.  and because it was still so early in the quarantine period, the hub was feeling pretty festive that day.

the old lady was still working at that point, and sent me this cute picture of steviedog since i hadn't seen him in a week.

thanks to my co-leader buddy scoping it out and then sharing the news that the store was fully stocked with corned beef brisket in the meat department, i was able to find what i needed pretty quickly.  and while i was there, i stocked up on a few other things that i knew we'd want to have.  while the line to check out was pretty long, everyone did a good job of maintaining the 6' distance from each other and i managed to check out and get the hell outta there fairly quickly.

thank goodness for this thing.  my only real concern was how i'd be able to clean it properly without a kitchen sink, but i was so happy to be able to do a home cooked meal for the first time in what seemed like forever.

the bean came out to bond with her dogs while our dinner was cooking.

voila - st. paddy's day dinner was served!  this wasn't easy considering i only had a butter knife and plastic flatware to work with, but it was totally worth the effort.  it wasn't pretty, but it sure was tasty.

guys...i don't know what i'm going to be able to blog about in the coming weeks.  while 45 seems to think we can reopen things in time for easter, that sounds like the worst idea he's come up with (and that's saying a lot).  we haven't even hit the peak of this thing yet, and while the numbers keep climbing we know they've gotta be even worse since nobody can get tested aside from VIPs, athletes and celebrities.  i can't even imagine seeing a light at the end of this tunnel for a good 8 more weeks, at least.  we need to continue the social distancing, which seems to be the best thing we can possibly do to contain the spread of this virus.

and so, the blog.  i mean, how many pictures of the dogs do you really want to see?  or our home workouts?  i better bust out the ol' sewing machine and start working on some projects to make things interesting.  as it is, there's a lot of netflix binging and social media posting and lounging around and dvr clearing out and napping going on here.  life these days is all about sweatpants and comfort bras and catching up on magazines and snacking and exercising to work off the snacks.  and it's also really nice to be with my family and my dogs in the safest place we can be...home.

silver lining.  it's there if you want to see it!

st. paddy's day shenanigans

our st. patrick's day celebrations were pretty low-key, as they always are.  i mean, it's not like we're even irish or anything.  heh.

i finally tried out the local fresh-pressed juice bar that opened recently.  this was a fun combo of cucumber, lime, orange, kale, parsley, and spinach - which i admit sounds gross as hell, but it was really tasty!

the bean had choir pictures that day at school, but packed a green outfit and rocked a festive headband in the meantime.

and because i'd had leftover cookie dough from an order, i made a bunch of these that she took to school to share (and the old lady got to share some at work too).

i took a barre class and made a pitstop on the way home for some fun krispy kreme treats:

and the hub took me to a newish place for lunch, where we were in corned beef heaven.  this was a corned beef "burger" with horseradish aioli and slaw, served with tater tots (!!!).

he opted for the traditional corned beef plate, washed down with a nice cold beer.

dessert was a warm brownie skillet and fresh cookies served with this tiny mug of icy milk:

when i got home, i worked on a quick project for the old lady to wear that evening.  we were taking our girl scout troop to the 7pm showing of "beauty and the beast."  on a friday.  which was also opening night.  she deserved something fun for her presence.

i decided to try a little disneybounding and planned to wear this:

but the old lady nixed the t-shirt and i ended up wearing a little white cardigan over it instead.  there was already a pretty big lineup happening when we arrived at the theater, even an hour and 15 minutes early.

somehow, we managed to secure almost an entire row once inside...enough for all 14 brownies to sit together.  we sat behind them with a few of the parents, and once the snacks were picked up and distributed we all settled back and enjoyed the movie.  all 2 hours + of it.  we all loved it though, and i'd actually like to go see it again so i can enjoy it without constantly looking over to check on the girls in front of us.

i'd call st. patrick's day 2017 a smashing success.

yay for st. patrick's day!

it seems like holidays are kind of falling by the wayside around here lately.  valentine's day was super low key, and st. patrick's day wasn't much more exciting.  although it did start off with what seems to be a tradition for the bean - green milk for breakfast.

while her school did give them the okay to break from dress code and wear green to celebrate the day, we had something different from the usual morning routine.  it was the day of her very first ACSI piano festival, something she's been practicing really hard for over the last few weeks.  she had to memorize the piece she chose to play for the adjudicator and be prepared to answer a few questions about reading music.  we'd helped her study and listened to her play her piece, and she was ready.

her scheduled time wasn't till 10:30, but because we knew we'd face some traffic on the way down to yorba linda, we left extra early.  with her check-in ten minutes prior, we actually managed to get in there even earlier.

when we opened the door to the choir room, where we'd been directed to go, there was no one in there but the adjudicator.  turns out that they'd gotten through all of the earlier participants really quickly and were way ahead of schedule.  this was good, because it didn't give the bean any time to sit around and get more nervous than she already was.  she sat right down and got started.

it went really quickly, she performed well and answered the questions correctly, and then it was over. this right here is the epitome of "relief."

considering that this was her very first time at this, i think she did a pretty damn fine job.  just one point away from "superior," but that's okay.  it'll give her something to strive for next year.  not too bad for being the youngest representative from her school to attend the festival, eh?

with some unexpected bonus time together before she had to be back at school, we headed home to get her changed and then went back out to grab some lunch.

also?  i finally cracked and let myself get a tall iced latte from starbucks.  oh, was it good.

we ended the day with the best dinner ever:

i guess we did have a pretty fantastic st. patrick's day after all, wouldn't you?

crock'in & rollin'

the little dress i threw together for the bean to wear on st. paddy's day was a big hit. she was excited to put it on, and i'm just happy she's still willing to wear stuff i make for her.

she loved the little hair clip i'd so hastily assembled, too. 

she's such a ham. i have no idea where she gets it. 

her class was doing just a little party that day, serving pancakes for breakfast. the batter incorporated some "magic powder" that a leprechaun had sent them, and when they mixed it in the pancakes magically turned green. 

as they ate (and man, can those kids take down some pancakes), they wore the hats they'd made just for the party. 

when she got tired of wearing it, she gave her hat to her sister:

...who then photobombed us in this shot. 

dinner was...you guessed it, corned beef and cabbage that i'd thrown into the crock pot that morning. 

looks good, right? i mean, if you like corned beef (which we all do, luckily), that is. except that i think my crock pot is a crock. this is the second time now that i've used it in the last month where the food just hasn't come out right. the texture of the meat came out tough and rubbery instead of flaky and tender, and i didn't do anything differently from before. super annoying.

time for a new slow cooker?  maybe. 

chasing leprechauns

for some reason, i've never had the chance to do a st. patrick's day run. there aren't really any near me, or maybe i had other things going on. i don't even know. but whatever - i decided to register for the leprechaun leap 5K in tustin just days before 3/17 (or, more accurately, 3/16 since st. paddy's day fell on monday this year).

the hub was going to run it with me to make up for the february 5K he'd had to miss, but had to bow out due to a big event at the lounge the night before. i managed to rope my friend delovely details into taking his place, and she was nice enough to lend me one of her green sparkle skirts - a color i actually don't have. 

i found it a little odd that they'd scheduled bib pickup at costco on a saturday afternoon. parking was a little hairy, but at least picking up the packets was easy. 

the next morning, i was up and out super early. it was still dark when i left the house, but the sun came up as I pulled into the district at tustin legacy's parking lot. it was a good ten degrees cooler down there than at home, though, and I was glad i'd received my 2014 team superhero shirt. at least it had short sleeves instead of being a tank top. 

dd and mr. dd live a lot closer to tustin than i do, and were already there along with mama dd. we chatted and hung out at the start line, and then random city dignitaries stood at the podium to welcome the runners. 

dd, who's a huge supporter of all things UCLA, went nuts when this guy was introduced. i'm fairly sure he's a member of bruin football, though. i'm embarrassed to admit that i still don't know who he is, but here you go.

and then we were off. it was a pretty flat course, taking us around the shopping center on the asphalt at first. there were lots of crazy costumes, wigs, tutus...even a couple of kilts like this one.

i was making pretty good time and hit the first mile marker in under ten minutes. if only i could maintain that pace for further than a mile, heh. 

then we took a turn through a fence and the asphalt gave way to a dirt road. i've tried trail running exactly once and was terrified the whole time that my clumsy butt would slip on the loose gravel and twist an ankle or something. not my thing, like, at all. 

it was shaping up to be quite a lovely day, though.

i'd been really surprised to learn that these gigantic structures have been around since WWII. this was the third year of this run, but running through one of the hangars wasn't approved until this year. there was a lot of excitement buzzing through the crowd as we approached the entrance.

that thing was seriously ginormous. i mean, yeah...duh. but it's even more so when you're inside of the darn thing. pretty cool, and i'm not really an aviation/engineering/whatever geek. 

by the way...yes, my pictures suck. i was running! and as i made the u-turn at the opposite end and headed back towards the entrance, i found the 2-mile mark. 

outside, i ran into a couple of girls who recognized me from my team superhero shirt. they were taking pictures here, so i decided to take advantage and got one too. 

the final mile was...uneventful. 

just around the corner was the finish. 

dd and mr. dd weren't far behind me, having hung back to take more pictures in the hangar. she introduced me to angry julie, an OC blogger and another member of sparkle athletics. 

it was a really fun run, totally worth getting up early for, and i'm glad i finally got to run a st. paddy's day-themed race. i'd totally do this one again next year.