So, it blizzarded “a little” last Wednesday. On Tuesday it was a glorious 50 degrees and sunny, and less than 24 hours later we were battling 40 mph winds and 20 inches of snow. I know I already mentioned this, but I thought there might be some Texans out there who would enjoy the view:
{Ahh, snow drifts! There is actually a front stoop and steps in this picture, but you’d never guess if you didn’t know}
{The wind wasn’t messing around}
{Somewhere under the snow, there were cars}
{Ted eventually found them}
With a bunch of training sessions and auditions and such going on at work lately, my schedule has been a little funky. I needed to be at the theatre all day Saturday for several events, so I took Friday as my Saturday – leaving Thursday night as my Friday night. On a whim, Ted suggested we adventure it up with a date to the indoor trampoline park that I so adore, followed by dinner at a new restaurant we had a gift certificate to try. It takes very little convincing for me to be on board with anything that contains the words “trampoline” or “food”. So we spent an hour bouncing like kangaroos and flipping like coins at the indoor trampoline park. Ted was partial to slamming the everloving daylights out of people on the trampoline dodgeball court (he’s sly and skilled and crafty and vicious!) and catching some serious air on the trampoline basketball court, while I’ve become quite the expert at unattractively fishing myself out from the cushy clutches of the middle of a deep foam pit after a series of flips and entirely ungraceful swan dives from an overhead trampoline and working on perfecting my, now stellar, mid-air straddle leap and, still less than stellar, flips where I actually land on my feet. It was so fun! We had an amazing time! And got such an awesome workout! There’s definitely nothing quite like an hour at a trampoline park to remind you what it feels like to be utterly exhausted. If SkyZone weren’t 20 minutes from home and we were rich, I’d definitely sign up for their fitness classes!
{Thanks for the date night mom & dad!}
To compensate for that excellent workout, we celebrated with gourmet burgers and seasoned fries, which were absolutely delicious, from Blu Bar & Grille. I also loved their classy meets funky atmosphere and their interior decorating scheme. I finished the night soaking in a steaming bubble bath with Little Women, our next book club read.
Since Friday was my Saturday, I snoozed til 9:30 then lollygagged around in bed until 10:30 when I finally crawled out from beneath the cozy comfort of my covers and fluffy pillows to cook up some eggs and a smoothie for breakfast. Ted needed to spend a few hours at the high school where he’s designing and mixing sound and mics for their upcoming production of Anything Goes, so I took it easy at home and caught up on some odds and ends while he was at rehearsal. Around mid-afternoon we met at Cold Stone Creamery for a happy hour milkshake date. Ted did a black cherry frozen yogurt malt, and I got a tangerine sorbet creamscicle milkshake (a mix of tangerine sorbet and sweet cream ice cream) – it was magical. And now that you know that Cold Stone offers a milkshake happy hour every Monday-Friday from open til 5 p.m., you’ll be in just as much trouble as we are. You’re welcome.
Friday night I baked up a tasty lemon parsley panko-crusted salmon with salad and carrots, and for dessert, in honor of National Pi Day, we defrosted and baked two miniature single-serving pie jars (strawberry rhubarb and apple cranberry) that I’d made over Thanksgiving and frozen.
Saturday Ted and I both had to work at our respective theatres all day, but after work I met my lovely friend Kristen for another dinner date at Aja Noodle (again – we can’t help it, we love that place! *and we had another coupon*) to catch up on some Asian noodles, life, girl talk, and her Bikram Yoga March Madness challenge to raise awareness for SMA. I am so proud of this girl! Dinner was relaxing and delicious and wonderful, and I am so grateful to have such an incredible core group of awesome lady friends in Rochester! Following dinner we met Ted at Geva for the evening performance of Eric Coble’s play, Stranded on Earth, in our Nextstage space, which I was really intrigued by and quite enjoyed! The scenic design – with the under-lit platform and sand was so unique, and the story was simply beautiful and emotional and artistic and thought-provoking. It’s one of those shows I’d love to see again – you watch it the first time for story and basic understand, and the second time to catch all the gems you missed the first time and to connect the dots.
On Sunday I finally dragged Ted to the open house of a flipped house in Webster that I have been ogling for weeks now. I’m not sure why I’m so in love with this house considering that we are in absolutely no position to buy a house right now, no matter what the cost…and it just isn’t happening. But the house has the four things I want the most in a home: a great bathtub, beautiful kitchen, a lovely backyard and deck, and recent structural and cosmetic renovations. Plus, it was bought last May for $26,000 and is now on the market for just over $100,000…so they obviously flipped it and I was just so darn curious to see what all they did to it…and to see more of the rooms (basement, etc.) that they didn’t have pictures of on the realty website. We arrived at the house….to a giant “sold” sign. How dare they have the audacity to sell a house I’ve been silently stalking for a month to someone else who could probably actually afford it!? I moped for about 4.5 seconds before getting a hold of myself and moving on. Ah well.
And if you’ve made it all this way and are still reading…first of all: Congratulations! And Thank you! And secondly, if you have just 10 seconds more to spare, we would be so appreciative if you could follow this link to submit a vote for Ted Rhyner. He is a Top 10 Finalist out of thousands of entries to win a trip to the 2014 CMA Festival in Nashville – and he’d love to go! We also wouldn’t object if you’re feeling extra generous and awesome and would like to email or Facebook your family and friends this link and ask them to vote for Ted as well. Thank you!
