Sunday, December 14, 2008

Weekend wrap up

Wow, this would be one of those weeks that I am glad is in the books. I returned to work on Wednesday, feeling curiously detached and not in a good way. But I made it through the day and the rest of the week. I certainly was glad when Friday night rolled around.

The weather has been in the toilet this weekend. It is raining but the temperature is hovering just above freezing. So the rain falls, freezes, turns to slosh and muck. (Those are technical weather terms). It is so gross outside - sort of the March yucky-ness when it is sort of between late winter and early spring, and can't make up its mind. Even Mr. Handsome seems dreary.

The highlight of our weekend was sharing it with our friend, Ann Marie. She is a student at Aquinas College and is wrapping up her studies for the semester. We invited her over for a break, to get out the dorm, have some place quiet to study and chillax, while she prepares for her week of finals. Plus she LOVES to cook and wanted to cook dinner for us. (Yeah, NOT kidding....) We picked her up before lunch, ran down to our fave store, Art of the Table, did some shopping, grabbed Jimmy Johns for lunch and unpacked her stuff. We ran to Meijer to pick up dinner fixings and spent the afternoon enjoying a fire, music and company.

Paul and Ann Marie made her favorite dinner, Citrus Chicken. The recipe is simple - a whole chicken stuffed with lemons and oranges, baked with frequent basting of lemon and orange juice. Simple, elegant, tender and so easy to cook. WOW. The entire evolution, complete with pictures, is over at the Cafe. For my birthday, she is going to make her favorite clam/shrimp linguine. Who am I to say no?

It was great to have her over before she heads home to DTW for the Christmas holiday. But most enjoyable was Mr. Handsome and his hilarious antics. He is IN LOVE with Ann Marie. In fact, he spent the entire weekend next to her; he curled up on the sofa with her while she studied, sat at her feet while she was cooking, and slept next to her all night on the guest bed. Now keep in mind that we have not had a guest since we brought him home, nor has he ever slept anywhere other than his crate. She went to sleep and he followed her into her room, jumped up on the bed and went to sleep. We were all laughing.

The last bits of 'to do' stuff are waiting. We need to put up the Charlie Brown Christmas Tree and finish the lights. We have a little dinner prep to do and I have a final load of laundry to move around. Tomorrow, it's back at it! Enjoy the evening.

2 comments:

Lisa said...

I can't tell you how happy I am to see you return to the blogoshere. Glad you're feeling better. The chicken sounds wonderful. I'll have to try...given we have citrus aplenty this time of year.

Sorry to hear about the "muck." I'm ever hopeful there is not so much "muck" when we arrive. The Tot has needs, you know. Mostly...SNOW!!!

L.

Deirdre Honner said...

We want snow for you two too!