Let's have some fun, this beat is sick

Oh Lady Gaga...

Saturday I woke up a little after 9:00 since I was out late Friday. I had breakfast and went to the farmer's market with mum and dad. I bought some jam that one of my culinary classmates and his wife make. I had lunch and started working on my pretzel dough. While that was rising I went for a walk. By the time I came home the dough was ready. I made the pretzels and took a nap. I picked Sam up and we bought almost $30 worth of cheese for the fondue. The fondue party was fun. We played games and drank a bit. Of course when I left at 2:15 a.m. I wanted to go for a drive. I didn't though.

This morning I was up just before 9:30. I went for a lovely run, about six miles straight, including stops at traffic lights! It felt good. I had a quick breakfast and hung out with Lindsey for most of the afternoon. After I put gas in the car I went home and headed to the neighbour's for Wally's birthday party. It was very nice. His wife Taz is from Japan and made sushi! I want to learn how to make sushi from her. I also had some sake. I watched Trueblood this evening. It also turns out the car is leaking oil when we just had it in for repairs last week. Jeebus...

Random thought: I need to work as many hours as I can, save as much money as I can and move out.

~Nicole

Trevor Time!!

I went to the game last night and FINALLY got to see Trevor Hoffman pitch for a save. That meant I got to hear Hells Bells!!! Example of the Trevor spectacle: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Fh5B0v1Cpfk . This was my 8th game of the season and the first time I've ever gotten to see Hoffman pitch for the save. I was freaking out. If I find a way to load video from my phone I'll post it here since it's pretty hilarious! I get decent video, but not sound so for half of it all you can hear is me screaming. lol

Kelly and I had fun before the game with martinis and beer. I would have bought a Spotted Cow, but they don't sell any there. I didn't look ALL around the park, but they pretty much sell the same stuff everywhere there. After the game we had to go do something with Kelly's brother so I didn't get home until a little after 1:00 but I didn't care.

Work went well yesterday. I definitely plan on parking in that further ramp to save money. I work early all next week and imagine I will on a consistent basis so that's fine by me. I also picked up another shift this coming week so that makes me happy.

Today I'll probably go to the farmer's market with mum and dad. It's fondue night too so I need to make some soft pretzels (yes, homemade) for that. I'll probably go for a walk in the afternoon for some exercise.

Random thought: Last night was amazing. :)

~Nicole

Feeling better

Thanks for "listening" to my slight rant earlier. Some things have changed and I feel better now.

Tomorrow is going to be fun. I work 7-1:30 and then I am going to the Brewer game with Kelly! I am leaving for work a bit earlier and am going to see what it's like parking in a ramp further from work. I'll have to walk for ~10-15 minutes, but it'll save me considerable amount to park. The ramp I usually park at is $1.25 p/hour. The ramp I am going to try tomorrow is $0.70 p/hour. If I work 6-8 hour shifts, I'll be saving $3-4 per day. Depending on how many hours I work I could potentially be saving $15-20 per week. I don't mind a walk. Once winter comes it may be different depending on snow and ice.

To my Chicago friends, have any of y'all ever been to an Italian restaurant called Francesca? I read in the Wisconsin State Journal that there is one planning to open up in Madison. Just wondering if I should check it out.

Random thought: You all mean so much to me who read this. :)

~Nicole

PS--> Laura, do you have an e-mail address or good times for me to call? You, myself, Kelly and Nadine (if she is still in town) should get together again soon. :)

I'm tired

I want to nap, but since I'm up early tomorrow I don't want to nap. Ugh. And the Brewers blew a lead and are now losing to the fucking Reds.

I did go for a run this morning. I ran about 4, so not too bad. I showered and made breakfast. I read and did random stuff. I spilled my milk and granola on the carpet so that got me upset. I downloaded a few more songs. Mum and I went grocery shopping. I came home and made a sandwich and a s'more for lunch. I'm pretty crabby since I'm tired and still have a bit of a headache.

I got my work schedule for next week and I am at 22-23 hours. I was told 35-40 once school started. I'll give them a few weeks to see if any of our newbies quit or want less hours. If they don't I'll just need to find another job. I don't really want to do that, but I don't want to and can'twork those few hours.

I've been swearing too much lately. My hand also still hurts from when I accidentally slammed it against the corner of a table in the kitchen. I also need to make my peach salsa.

Random thought: Can I please nap with my kitty?

~Nicole

Am I going to run in the rain?

Yeah. Probably. I'm hungry though, but that can wait.

My Brewers have lost two in a row in overtime. Foooooooooockkkkkkkkkkkk.

The past few days have been okay. I worked one of them. I can't wait to work more so I have more money. I work early tomorrow so I'm up earlier today so I'm tired later. Now I just have to make myself not nap.

I went bowling and had a gross beer that got even more gross as it came to room temp.

Random thought: Not for the actual reason why the shirt was made, but I kind of want this shirt: www.flippinsweetgear.com/shirt/movieshirts.flippin_sweet.1662965+team-nicole-t-shirt.html#WOMENS

~Nicole

Why am I tired lately?

I forgot which day I ran/walked 7.25 miles, but I did and it felt great. :)

Saturday morning I went for a run/walk, mostly run. I probably ran close to 5 miles. After I showered and got dressed Lindsey picked me up and we went Halloween costume shopping. Well, first we had a bagel but then we went shopping. I found a cute orange and chocolate-brown peasant skirt at Ragstock. I also found an orange boa. After a few more stops I found an orange sweater real similar to what Velma wheres. It's a bit big, but after a few alterations it will be excellent. I tried on the whole outfit and I like it! Now I just need to get some shoes, tights and glasses and my outfit will pretty much be set. After shopping I came home and had some lunch. I was at the church at 5:00 to help with the dinner. I was home a little before 8:00. Lindsey and I thought about doing stuff, but we decided not to. I had a beer with the parents, which was awesome. We watched some TV and I was in bed by 12:00.

Sunday I was up by 7:30. I was going to run, but decided after 15 seconds of running that I wanted to walk instead. I showered before heading to church and helping out with lunch. After cleaning up and having a bit of lunch ourselves I headed home. I watched the Brewers and spent some time outside. We had a fire in our firepit before dinner. I watched Trueblood before we watched the F1 race.

Today I stayed in bed until 8:00. I don't know what it's been, but I've just been really tired lately. I went out for a short run, about 3 miles. I mowed the lawn, showered and had breakfast. This morning I'll be making zucchini bread and later on, zucchini pancakes.

Random thought: Good luck to those going back to school. :)

~Nicole

Being the DD

I enjoyed being the DD last night. I had to work early this morning so I only wanted to have one drink. I let my other friends get a bit trashed. I had my toffee martini. I've now discovered that I do not like "cream based" drinks. The idea of a mudslide when I was younger sounded amazing, but now that I've had a cream-based drink it's not really my thing. After a quick stop at McDonalds (I only had 2 fries) we hot tubbed it for a while.

I worked today and went grocery shopping with mum. After a quick nap I went to help Sam and her mom at their church for their annual dinner-and-a-show. I stopped at another grocery store for milk; the store we usually shop at does not carry quart size in the cartons. I also picked up some yogurt and a banana since Sam was telling me about this chocolate-peanut butter smoothie so I want to have that for dessert. I LOVE the combo of chocolate and peanut butter. Yum!

Tomorrow I'm going to go for a run in the morning. Lindsey and I need to do some Halloween costume shopping or at least we're going to try. I'm helping Sam and her mom again. Lindsey and I might go out tomorrow night for some karoke; we'll see.

Random thought: Rain delay! C'mon umps call it. It's the 8th! Brewers are winning 4-2!

~Nicole

State Fair

Sunday was State Fair day. I didn't get the best sleep since we went out the night before. I wasn't planning to go out, but I figure why not. I made scones for our trip to Milwaukee, or technically West Allis. It took us a little over an hour to get there. We checked out the animals first - the goats were SO cute! We then headed to the midway. Lindsey and Luke bought the unlimited daypass. Sam and I didn't want to go on as many rides so we just bought tickets for the ferris wheel and tilt-a-whirl. While Lindsey and Luke rode rides Sam and I checked out the Wisconsin products pavilion and the building with all of the different vendors (a lot of stuff you see on infomercials). We came back together to have beer. I was happy they had spotted cow. We saw that there was to be dualing pianos so we watched that on-and-off for over three hours. Lindsey and Luke wanted to go on a few more rides before we called it a night.

Monday was very tiring. I started work at 7:00, which isn't bad. I went to bed at a decent hour the night before so I got plenty of sleep, but I was still so tired. Of course it was the first full day of my period and I'm always tired the first 1-2 days. I had another delicious lunch of pita, veggies and hummus before taking a nap. I hung out with the parents and had dinner before I met Lindsey and Luke for bowling and beer. And a panty dropper - the shot. We had fun at the jukebox.

This morning I woke up hungry so I had breakfast before I worked out. I met Sam and Chana for lunch at this new Asian buffet. Good food for the most part at very good prices. Mum and I ran some errands. We made a pizza for lunch. Luke, Lindsey and I are going to watch Scooby Doo tonight since we decided to dress up (along with Jaime) as those characters for Halloween in NYC. I'm going to be Velma or whatever her name is. I never watched the show.

Random thought: C'mon Brewers...

~Nicole

Best $1.50 ever

I worked 8 hours yesterday. I'm not complaining, but the last 3 hours we were so dead so the time dragged. I felt like I was at Cool Beans again since I finished a Sudoku puzzle and attempted a crossword. After work I mowed the lawn and showered and made myself a sandwich. I got ready to go out. We started at Gennas and I realized I forgot to put on deoderant. The best $1.50 I spent that night was at Walgreens for a trial size of deoderant. I felt SO much better after putting that on. We had a red-headed slut, which tasted like glorified cough medicine. Lindsey thinks it was made slightly different. Not bad, but I won't have one again by choice. We went to The City after that and then Wandos and ended our evening at Ians for pizza. We picked up the karoke at Lindsey's and sang horribly at my house. I was in bed a little after 2:00.

I was up at a little after 7:00 to hit up the Farmer's Market with Sam and Chana. I finally tried the scone place that has the "semi healthy scones" to the "extremely healthy scones." There are four different categories so I had the very healthy and one of the not so healthy. I enjoyed the very healthy a lot. After that we went to Java Cat for coffee. I had a very good latte; I was impressed. We killed some time before seeing an early showing of "Julie and Julia." It is very cute and it made want to cook even more! lol

Tonight I'm just hanging here. I picked up some hummus so I'll be having that with some vegetables and pita for dinner. I'll watch the baseball game. We're going to the State Fair tomorrow so that'll be fun.

Random thought: Get to make British scones tomorrow!

~Nicole

This was yesterday's blog

For some reason it wasn't letting me post so here the blog I wrote yesterday.

This morning I went for a run/walk, almost 6 miles. I showered and got ready for my visit with Laura and the kids. We met at Daisy's, this "cupcakery." I had the chocolate cupcake with peanut butter frosting and granola with milk since I had not had breakfast yet. The cupcake was good. I wish the frosting was more peanut buttery, but other than that it was good. I'll definitely go again. The homemade granola was AWESOME. It was nice visiting with her and the kids. I hadn't seen Eliot in about 2 1/2 months and she's grown so much! I read Oliver a few stories before we parted.

Mum and I went grocery shopping. I had a quick lunch before I went into work for a bit of training. That didn't last too long. I put some gas in the car and stopped at Dairy Queen and bought a blizzard. A portion of all blizzards purchased today at participating DQ's went to the Children's Miracle Network, specifically in your area so the one I bought will be staying in the Madison area. Dinner was decent; not great. I'll need to do better tomorrow.

Tomorrow will be fun. I'll work, stop at the bank, mow the lawn, shower, and probably make dinner before heading out. I volunteered to drive. That way I won't overdrink since I gotta be up early on Saturday.

Random thought: See below - don't we look cute?



~Nicole

A few photos from the weekend - more on facebook

~Nicole

Mid Ohio

Thursday:
I woke up early and went for a run. I showered, shaved and dyed my hair. I finished packing and relaxed before catching the 1:00 bus to Midway. We arrived at Midway at about 4:45. Cat and I grabbed some Subway and went back to their place to finish packing and eat dinner. Al came home, changed and we all loaded the car. We were on the road by 6:15. It was a pretty uneventful drive; including the time change we got to Warsaw, IN at a little after 10:00. We visited with John for a little bit before heading to bed.

Friday:
I woke up to pee at 4:30 and was greeted by Stormy upon my return. We had some love time for a little bit. I got up and got dressed just before 5:00 since I knew we wanted an early start. We had some breakfast and left for Mid Ohio just after 6:00. It was a BORING drive - nothing around. We got to the track just past 9:30. We parked, met up with Jen and got familiar with our surroundings. I had a vodka lemonade. We found our campsite - VERY nice and it was close to the paddock and showers. We set up camp before heading to the paddock/pit. The very first thing I see - Justin Wilson on a scooter with his daughter. :) I saw some of the racing girls and visited for a little bit. I ran into Mel and FREAKED out. It had been six too-long of years since we'd seen each other. I invited her back to the campsite for lunch. I had a beer; it was a very good beer. It made me funny/happy since I was drinking it on almost an empty stomach. After lunch Mel took me on a tour of the track. After she left I went back to the campsite and helped with dinner. After dinner Al, Jen and Elaine got ready for bed I went to the other campground to hang with some friends. I had beer, some vodka-fruit punch and more beer. I did pretty decent in beer pong after all those beers. I drunk-dialed a few people. I talked with Jeremy most of the time. Because a few gates were closed I ended up walking through the paddock to get back to the campground; that was pretty fun tipsy. I brushed my teeth, got my pj's on and went to bed.

Saturday:
Slept AWFUL. Didn't help I was peeing almost every 1 1/2 hours and was cold and couldn't get comfortable. We had breakfast and we wandered off to the paddock and pits. We met up with Mel and her dad and talked for a bit. We talked with Joey Hand for about 10 minutes. I love that guy. I'm so happy he has a steady job. He showed us pictures of his children - adorable. I gave Justin Wilson his birthday cupcake. We had an early lunch before the ALMS autograph session. Jen had to report to the Atlantics tech for work. I hung out with Elaine and Al for a bit before the ALMS race. I wish Joey good luck. I went to my assigned grandstand seat, which actually provides great views. I sat with Mel and her dad and watched the first bit of the race. I went back to the campsite to get a snack before watching the rest of the race. I watched the beginning of the Atlantic race and headed back to camp. Elaine and Al were napping so I went back to the pits. They weren't really guarding the podium area so I went in and watched with Chris' parents. I got a bit of champagne sprayed on me. I went back to the campsite and helped Elaine and Al with dinner. Or I probably did. We ate dinner and then went to see how Jen was doing in tech. Us three talked with Sandy for a bit. Jen ate dinner while I put on my pj's and brushed my teeth. Jen went to shower and by the time she came back I was asleep.

Sunday:
I actually slept well, considering. I went for a short run and showered. We had a quick breakfast before getting as much of the campsite cleaned up as possible. I talked with Jeremy for a bit and roamed the paddock and talked with Ryan for a bit. I wished my people good luck. We had an early lunch before the race. I watched it from the grandstand with Mel. I'll give the irl credit - they hype it up. The race was good until Justin stalled it in the pits. After that I didn't really care anymore. I was happy Ryan finished 4th. I didn't even have my "race weekend is over" sadness. We went back to camp and didn't have much clean up and packing to do since we did a majority of it earlier. To let traffic clear/kill time Jen and I both showered. We left the track at about 4:45. We ran into some traffic, but not much. We stopped for gas and for dinner at Cracker Barrel - mine and Al's first visit there. Not too bad. We got to Warsaw just before 10:00. I tried to keep it a surprise, but failed - I had made and decorated an early birthday cake for Elaine since her birthday was the next day. Elaine and Al went to bed not too long after cake and Jen and I sat up for a bit.

Monday:
I was up just past 7:00. I had some breakfast and visited with Stormy. Elaine was up just past 8:00. Jen joined us soon afterwards. Stormy was on my lap about four different times that morning. We left Warsaw at 9:00-something. A pretty uneventful drive; it was nice gaining an hour back. We went out for Sushi for lunch. We got back to Elaine and Al's just past 1:00. We lounged for a bit before Elaine drove me back to Midway to catch the bus. The bus ride home was pretty uneventful. I got back to the house at 6:45 and left at 7:00 to plan our trip to NYC. We went to dinner at Quiznoes and went bowling and had some delicious Spotted Cow.

Tuesday:
I went for a run/walk, showered, had lunch, got pictures off the camera, spent time outside, did laundry, made dinner, am watching Brewer game and now have to look up cauliflower recipes.

Random thought: NYC over Halloween - woot!

Ohio

Going to Ohio today. I'll update again late Monday or Tuesday. :)

Random thought: I hope I can fit everything in. :/

~Nicole

The weekend or what I can remember

Friday night we picked up Grandma. I made stuffed zucchini for supper and it turned out good. We talked for a bit and I went to bed at around midnight. Saturday I got up and went for a run/walk. I showered, ate breakfast and talked with Grandma for a bit. Jaime, Chana and Sam came over. We went out to lunch at Monty's. Sam and I both had gift cards so our meal cost us a whopping 69 cents. Nice! We went to the park after lunch and looked at Chana's pictures from France. We talked and then walked to Dairy Queen. We disbanded at around 5:45. I didn't eat all my of ice cream so I'd have room for dinner. We grilled a turkey and some vegetables. Grandma also brough some German potato salad. For dessert I put some vanilla ice cream on some zucchini bread and drizzled some caramel sauce on it for Grandma. I finished my ice cream from earlier. I went to bed early since I was tired and started to feel myself getting crabby. Sunday I went for a walk, ate breakfast, read and talked with Grandma. Grandma and I had a light meal before mum and I drove Grandma back. I had dinner, watched Trueblood and read before going to bed.

Today was my first 8-hour day at the coffeeshop. It was slow, but the last hour flew. I ran a few errands after work. Now I'm making some food and doing random stuff. Tomorrow I only work a 4-hour shift so it's going to feel short after working 8 hours today.

Random thought: My raspberry-cherry jam turned out good.

~Nicole