Weekly Wrap Up - Week of February 4th

***Full Disclosure - I started writing this on Monday, February 12th***

    I woke up this morning thinking about the weekly wrap up and what all I had done during the week of February 4th. Honestly, I should just do a "weekend wrap up" because all I do during the week is work and if I do anything vaguely interesting, I don't remember anyway!

    Monday thru Friday I just worked.

    Saturday Lisa and I had to do some shopping. We needed to start prepping for a family reunion in Arizona this upcoming weekend. We will leave Friday morning and return Monday.

     We each are donating a basket to the reunion committee for a raffle to raise money for the next reunion. The last reunion we had was March of 2020. The weekend before everything shut down due to Covid! 

    Lisa is also going to a conference in March and she needed to provide two baskets for a raffle at her conferences and she still had to put together a basket for the reunion and she had nothing! I just needed to buy a basket and the cellophane wrap for the basket once it was put together, so we went together. We went to the stores we needed to go to and got what we needed to get. We had a wonderful relaxing lunch at Casa Munoz and each had a Strawberry Margarita.

    Because it's such a long trip and we are taking our mom we had planned to drive up the week before with mom and leave her there with one of her nieces so that she could relax and visit and come the weekend of the reunion she would not be as tired as if she had driven up with us. 

    The way it was planned we were supposed to drive up there on Saturday the 10th, but we found out just a few days before that mom got the date wrong and we were supposed to meet our cousin and his mom halfway on Sunday, Feb 11th. On SUPER BOWL SUNDAY! What the heck??? I was devastated. I love football and I was so excited for the commercials and for watching two great teams, the Kansas City Chiefs (who I was rooting for) and the San Francisco 49ers go head to head, I knew it was going to be a great game and now I would have to miss is!!

    Plus, on Super Bowl Sunday, I always love to make a huge spread of goodies to eat and now I wouldn't have time to cook or anything good to eat because I would be on the road! 

    Sunday morning, we headed out around 9am to meet up with our cousin Michael and his mom Mary Lou in Ludlow. 

    As you can see it's about a 3-hour trip. We got to Tehachapi and we had to make a pitstop at a Love's Truckstop. I love Love's, they are so clean and nice and big. 

    We got as far as Barstow and mom was ready to eat. She didn't want a sit down meal, she just wanted something fast because it was already 11:45 and we were meeting Michael and Mary Lou at 1pm.

    We stopped at the famous Barstow Station where I had Panda and mom and Lisa had Wetzel's Pretzels, here is a YouTube video about this great place. Mom wants to stop and explore more on the way home.

    

    We had just sat down to enjoy our lunch when cousin Michael calls to advise us that we all forgot that California is an hour behind Arizona time!!! They were already there and we still had about 35 to 40 minutes to get where they were, depending on traffic. 

    But what traffic? Everyone in the world with any sense was at home getting prepared to watch the big game...the road was empty. I guess that was good as we got to them in about 35 minutes. We delivered mom to them and then Lisa and I started to the road back home.

    Since we figured, we were going to miss the Super Bowl anyway, or at least most of it, we decided to stop in Barstow and do some shopping at a Marshalls store they have there. It's a tradition to always stop there. 

    I bought a pretty blouse and an Easter Decoration for my home, it's a Jolie Fleur collectible from their Spring collection and she's just so cute!

    It was between this one and one other one. I wish I had bought the other one too, but I am going back through the area this coming weekend for the reunion, so maybe I will stop by and see if they still have it.

    From there we decided we needed an ice cream cone. We asked the cashier if there was a good place to get ice cream in Barstow and she looked at us like we were aliens and said "Oh, I don't eat ice cream." Ummm...trust me, she looked like she ate a lot of ice cream!

    But we have google maps and we found a Foster's Freeze and we each got a large vanilla cone and an order of their crispy, crunchy french fries. We got back on the road and I was home by 6pm and the game was still on, it was the last quarter and from what I understand the game was boring up until the last quarter, the last few minutes and the overtime anyway...so I really didn't miss much except for the commercials and the half time show.

    And gosh darn it...my daughter decided that it would not do for me not to have special food for Super Bowl. She made me some Jalapeno Poppers, which I love. They were so good, perfectly made!

    She also made this fabulous salad that she found on the Food Network made by Molly Yeh. It's her Crispy Chickpea Salad, you can find the recipe HERE. 

    Salad is not necessarily my go-to for a Super Bowl, but it really hit the spot. It was a very pretty salad.

    So all's well that ends well. Mom is in Arizona, visiting and enjoying herself. Lisa and I made it back safely. I got to watch the end of the Super Bowl and I had a fabulous feast. It was a great weekend.

    I will probably be late posting again for the week of February 12th because we aren't heading back from Arizona until Monday, February 19th and I'm sure I will be too exhausted from the Reunion and the long car trip to sit at my computer, but I'll share some fun photos when I get a chance.

Weekly Wrap Up - Week of January 22nd

      Monday – Woke up to the soothing sound of rain, great way to start the day since we are still in a bit of a drought. Had a McDonalds French Toast K-cup this morning. I love flavored coffees! For dinner I made the best zucchini I had ever made in my life, let’s hope I can remember how to make it again, also served pan-fried pork chops next to it. Wish I had taken a picture!

    Tuesday & Wednesday- again I did not keep notes and I cannot remember anything for both these days.

    Thursday - This day started out normal, working my butt off because our annual State of the Company meeting was going to be held on Friday in Fresno which is about two hours away. I forgot to mention that due to the rain on Monday we had horrible Tule Fog. I wrote about what Tule Fog is on a 2009 blog post which you can read HERE. 

    It was so foggy on Thursday morning that our coworker/driver Angelica suggested at around 8am that we drive up after work so that we could avoid the fog. Gabby and I agreed it would be a good idea. So, where I thought I had a whole day to get caught up now I also had to get myself prepared for an overnight stay in Fresno! What to wear? Do I need to do laundry, but wait...answer the phone, clients are calling!! Needless to say, it was a very, very busy day.

    Angelica messaged us that one of the other ladies that was coming in from out of town wanted to meet up with us for dinner when we got to Fresno. We agreed to meet and picked a restaurant. But unfortunately, our plans were waylaid as Gabby had a problem client at the last minute and instead of arriving at the meet-up place at 5:30 she got there at 6:30, so we didn't hit the road until 6:30 and we knew it was going to be too late to meet-up for dinner so we cancelled and then decided to stop in Tulare for dinner at Cool Hand Luke's Steakhouse. 

    Traffic was decent considering it was Friday at rush hour. We got to the restaurant which was very nice. Angelica and I were both watching carbs so we each ordered the Steakhouse Cobb Salad, which was amazingly good! Check out this picture!

    Gabby had the Chicken Fried Steak, which I did not get a picture of. Unfortunately, since we were travelling, we all opted not to get a glass of wine or a cocktail...darn it!

    Then back on the road again and we reached the hotel at 9:25 pm and we each had our own room which was very nice. The room had a nice little kitchen, a living room and a very nice bedroom and bath. I was exhausted so after a shower I watched a little YouTube and went straight to sleep!

    We had agreed to meet downstairs in the lobby for the free breakfast and it was a very nice breakfast. I had Chorizo and Eggs and one pancake and coffee. Then we headed to the meeting place which was being held in the banquet room of the Ruth's Chris Steak House. 

    It was so fun to see everyone we work with and to meet all the new people that had started working there in the past year since the last meeting. Nice to put a voice with a face.

    Management had a table all set up with coffee and juices and snacks of all kinds. The meeting itself was fun, at times boring but they broke it up with team-building games which were fun and they handed out prizes, then it was time for lunch and since the only time that I remember to take photos is when there is food in front of me, here is the best steak I have ever had in my WHOLE ENTIRE LIFE! A beautiful, luscious, juicy Filet Mignon and some shrimp that were ok. 

    I swear this steak melted in my mouth and it was a nice size steak. They also served mashed potatoes and cheesy spinach which were ok also. I guess they figure when they serve the best steak in the world, you don't need sides!

    After that lunch we talked about what to expect in 2024, people gave speeches, including my co-worker Angelica who had recently been promoted to Transportation Department Manager, so proud of this young lady...she's a go-getter!  

    They give 4 major awards, Account Service Manager of the Year, Producer of the Year, Employee of the Year and Shark of the Year. None of us were lucky enough to win this year but we were proud of the ones that did. After the meeting we headed home with our Starbucks coffee in hand. We had a great time though!

    Saturday, we had to go get groceries. Mom was feeling up to going with me, so that pretty much took up our Saturday.

    Sunday of course if my "free" day and after figuring out how to use my new FoodSaver FM 2000 Vacuum Sealer I sealed up 8 pounds of hamburger meat and two huge packages of boneless chicken breast. I love this machine, it was so easy to use. I'm hoping it keeps those ice crystals from forming. 

    Then it was time to watch the football playoffs!! I'm a huge football fan and my team is the Dallas Cowboys. The Cowboys didn't make it to the playoffs so the pressure was off, I could just enjoy the games.

    First off, the Kansas City Chiefs with quarterback Patrick Mahomes played the Baltimore Ravens with quarterback Lamar Jackson. I like both teams and although I think Lamar is an amazing quarterback, I've always been partial to Mahomes. The Kansas City Chiefs won 17 to 10 final score. Great game!

    Following that was the Detroit Lions with quarterback Jared Goff played the San Francisco 49ers with quarterback Brock Purdy. I'm not particularly partial to either of these teams, so again there was no pressure, I just watched for the sheer fun of it. It also was a good game and the 49ers won.

Kansas City Chiefs vs San Francisco 49er's in Super Bowl LVIII on February 11th! I'm rooting for the Chiefs and putting together my Super Bowl menu!

    What about you? How was your week/weekend? Are you a football fan? What's your team? Are you watching the Super Bowl? Do you watch for the game, the commercials or the food?