Random Thursday Catch-up

There was a big football game last Saturday! Our team lost, but I got this great card…

…an addition to my collection of handmade cards from Rusty… because it was also our 39th wedding anniversary on Saturday! (That’s our Gnome Bay Packer QB, Jordan Love!)

I also enjoyed this great plate of loaded nachos for our game-time supper, compliments of Katie, and WOW, were they ever good. The recipe made a lot — enough for supper & lunch (they warmed up pretty good in the oven), plus a few little snacky crumbs — we snarfed it all.

Last “weekend” was the second of my 5-day stretches off due to the new schedule. I feel like I accomplished (or at least made progress on) some pesky tasks that I’ve been putting off — stuff like cleaning out my closet & getting some bookwork done — and still had time for some fun!

Annie returned from New Zealand on Monday night and drove up/arrived late, so we hung out most of Tuesday — which was also her birthday! We went out for lunch and did a little shopping in the afternoon, and in honor of it being the 11th anniversary of my trip to Brazil, we made moqueca & pao de queijo (purchased), brigadeiros, and mixed up caipirinhas.

She brought me this cute tea towel from New Zealand! And I gave her a beautiful framed ceramic tile (that will be perfect in her house)! She’s on her way to Boston today for a conference. I tagged along last year and I had so much fun. I never blogged about that… I’ll have to recap at some point. It was my first visit to Boston and I was on my own a lot. I/We visited some amazing places, and I even rented a car and drove down (?) (up?) to visit with Carole (& Dale) at their house for a few hours!

Meanwhile, I’ve been knitting on my blanket — not a lot, but making progress on Ali’s blanket panel.

Even just one more row is progress, right?

I just have to share this milestone event that happened last Friday (our hyper-local paper is a weekly):

That’s the current owner (2 years), Mamie, on the left, Ali (13 years) in the middle, and Mike — the guy who started it all — on the right. I wish the photo wasn’t so dark, but I really love it! It was a fun day for all of them!