In the harsh, cold light of day this morning, I made the tough decision to return the biggest (and most expensive) impulse item I picked up at B&N yesterday: a special Book-Lover’s Edition of Trivial Pursuit. 🙁 The biggest reason why? Because both Anders and my mom, upon separately hearing what I had purchased, said, “But…who are you going to play it with?” *sob*
So, tonight I trounced Mom at cribbage and now I feel better.
Anders and I spent some time at Lowe’s this morning drooling over chandeliers and hanging lamps because we have now lived in 2 houses for a total of 6.5 years with a butt-ugly cheapo IKEA ceiling lamp “temporarily” installed over our dining room table. It’s making me crazy. But, after seeing how big the boxes of our 2 top choices were, and how much they weighed, and thinking about the potential dodgy answers we’d have to give Customs should they get feisty, we opted not to purchase. At least now I have extracted a promise from Anders to look for a lamp soon after returning to Sweden, and we have a better idea of what style we’d like. Sparkly glass is, alas, not an option. har!
For those of you who wanted the banana cream pie recipe from my sister, it’s a cheater, but a yummy one, so if you can get the ingredients, I highly recommend it: 1 ready-to-go pre-baked pie crust, 1 package of instant banana (or whatever flavor you want if you don’t like banana) pudding. Use half the milk the pudding package instructions call for. Add a HALF TUB of Cool Whip, mix all together and set in the fridge until set. Decorate with fresh fruit or whatever you like. My sister did concentric circles of raspberries, blackberries and blueberries.
Anders and I had a lovely time with my cousin Jeff and his wife Heidi last night. They had made reservations at a “resort” called Tin Fish about 45 minutes south of Port Huron, right on the water. When we got there, the valet parking attendent (for a parking lot right next to the door with max 50 spaces (!!!)) told us the restaurant had just lost their power and they were only serving drinks at the Tiki Bar along the dock. So, we went ahead and parked and found Jeff and Heidi and had a quick drink and some corn chips in red, blue and yellow. After about 10 minutes, we decided to head out and find some place that could actually COOK our food, and the damned valet guy still wanted his 3 bucks! Argh.
So we headed down the coast and fetched up at an Italian joint where the highlights of the evening (apart from the fun company at our table, of course) were the black-lace-trimmed, incredibly tight red satin vest that the hostess was wearing, causing me to pause and gape at her, wondering if we’d accidently bungled into a brothel, and the whirling red, blue and green light-up ball that the singer in the band set spinning during his set. The artichoke and spinach dip appetizer was excellent, thank goodness, since the main meal, when it arrived, was completely nondescript. Afterwards, on a whim, we drove an hour down to Detroit to see their new house, which they closed on the day before and, after a tour, sat around talking amid the echoes and smell of fresh paint until pretty late.
Tomorrow, we are taking it easy and Tuesday we are descending upon the outlet stores and Frankenmuth (although I refuse to set foot in the 9th circle of hell otherwise known as Bronner’s). 😀