Real Life: Vacation, House Hunting & Vegetarian Slop!

We had a great trip to Virginia for our friends' wedding. We got to see so many friends from California. And, we got acquainted with truly freezing cold, miserable weather. We spent a day in Colonial Williamsburg, which was actually interesting...and made me aware of exactly how much I hate walking around in cold weather, and also how thankful I am to have been born in the 1900's instead of the 1700's. :)

We also spent a day shopping in Carytown, which is downtown Richmond. We found so many unique little shops. I made my first purchase in LeenaLu's boutique, where I found a super amazing mustard yellow handbag that made me smile. :) 

We meandered down the street a little further into a stationery shop where Rich ordered some custom notecards & envelopes. He was excited about them because they have his initials on them....I have to admit, they do look really sharp & masculine. My favorite part is the envelopes lined in black. :) I spent a little time in a makeup & skincare boutique next, where I stocked up on some of my favorite products. By then I was so cold that we had to get back in the car. But, we had a great afternoon! My least favorite souvenir from the trip was the cold-slash-flu that I brought home with me. I actually got an earlier flight so that I could bask in my sickness alone. After missing four days of work to sit at home coughing, blowing my nose, and puking everything up, I finally felt a little better and we decided to go house hunting.    

Even though I am still not 100% better, I REALLY enjoyed house hunting on Sunday afternoon!! We really liked our realtor and found some great places. So far we are favoring one house above the rest...it's a two story townhome. We were pleasantly surprised, because we didn't expect much from the tiny pictures we saw. However, somewhere between the travertine floors and the sunny master suite, we both started smiling a little. We'll see what happens. 

This entire crazy couple of weeks left me with very few perishables in the house...I had just been too tired, then too busy to go grocery shopping. So I decided to take the "whole house challenge" that I had been reading about a few months back. This challenge entails using everything edible in your house that you have stuck in the cupboards and forgotten about. Boxes of pasta, rice, jars of beans, pasta sauce, frozen vegetables, even the veggie burgers in the bottom of the freezer. Last night's dinner actually came out pretty amazing. I made bow tie pasta with olive oil & seasonings, then cooked a bag of broccoli florets and 3 random chicken tenderloins that have been floating around in the freezer. Topped with a little parm, it was actually a pleasing meal. That whole concept took a slight downward twist tonight, in Rich's eyes, anyway. I actually enjoy vegetarian and vegan dishes...the husband, not so much. I started with ziti rigati, then added a bit of leftover pasta sauce. I dug through the freezer to find a mix of frozen vegetables that seemed...Italian. Zucchini, carrots, roasted peppers. Somehow I thought that tomato & basil vegetarian pizza burgers would be tasty cut up, sauteed, and mixed in. And to me, it was. Poor Rich made a valiant effort to the enjoy a meal that is two of least favorite combinations--Italian & vegetarian. To his credit he did thank me for attempting to save on grocery money. :)