by Diana on October 31, 2009
in Dinner
Like I said in my previous post, this year’s Halloween was a bit of a let down for me. But, we’ll do better next year!
Hubby and I spent most of the evening working on Project Cabinet Clean-Up so we can start enjoying home cooked meals again. Since we had to eat and our plates hadn’t been unpacked or cleaned, hubby picked up Chinese take-out.
We started by splitting an egg drop soup.
Hubby and I ate off of one of our side tables since our coffee table is still broken.
I split this egg roll with hubby.
Hubby ordered veggie lo mein. I was surprised he ordered veggie, but kind of happy, too. I’m not missing meat from my meals like I used to.
I had two of these Snickers Almond candies in funsize for dessert.
After our long day of shopping and then long night of cleaning, hubby and I decided to crack open one of the bottles of Trentadue wine I brought back from my Cali trip earlier this year.
We opened the Trentadue Sangiovese and it was perhaps better than I remembered! Nice and smooth…delish!
Well, I’m pooped, so I’m going to enjoy a lil more vino, my fortune cookie, and perhaps a lil more Halloween candy.
G’night!
Hubby and I decided to sleep in a bit but try to hit up some garage sales. We found a couple random things to buy, but no furniture.
We broke around 11am for a late lunch. I had a Bruegger’s spinach omelet on rosemary olive oil and a pumpkin spice coffee.
I used to always order either a bagel and cream cheese or a bacon, egg, and cheese at bagel places, but the bacon has been weirding me out lately if it’s not crispy enough. I far more enjoyed my spinach omelet sans meat and may be making a switch to a new savory bagel favorite.
After brunch, we hit up a couple furniture stores. We found little in the furniture department, but we did like a couple rugs.
I thought this one would look great in the formal living room.
And I liked this one for the sunroom.
It’s the Sealy sheep!
We ended up hitting a couple furniture stores, one rug shop, a couple appliance stores, and Target.
After shopping, hubby and I had a light-ish lunch. We started by sharing a PLT Bruschetta with mozzarella, tomato, lettuce, and crispy pancetta with a balsamic glaze. It was DIVINE!
Next, we shared a Caesar salad.
Hubby and I split the Braised Beef fettucini for our lunch. I had about half of this, so 1/4 portion. I wish restaurants would offer smaller sizes…the “regular” portions are always HUGE!
Lunch was awesome, but afterwards, we were ready to be home.
We made sure to pick up Halloween candy while we were at Target and we got the good stuff – Snickers and M&Ms.
Project Cabinet Clean-Up
Almost as soon as we got home, I was ready to kick-off Project Cabinet Clean-Up. Our kitchen got quite dusty during all the renovations, so it needed quite the cleaning.
I pulled on my pretty pink rubber gloves and got to work. I used a mix of Castille soap and water to clean my cabinets.
Once the cabinets were clean, I started lining them with some non-adhesive lining (from Target).
I ran out of the lining material pretty quickly even though I had 3 rolls. I guess I forget how short they are!
I think the end result looks pretty darn good though.
We worked on the cabinets while the trick or treaters stopped by. We only had TWO groups swing by! Maybe they thought we didn’t have candy since we didn’t have decorations? I think less people went out this year also because it was raining…poor kiddos!
Speaking of Halloween, how bummed am I at missing out on the festivities this year! We were too busy with the house to do any Halloween decorations or go to any parties (and we got invited to TWO!) or even buy/make costumes. The worst part was not being able to do my annual Halloween-themed party. This would have been our third year, but we just couldn’t pull things together between Wednesday and Saturday. So sad!
Click here to see photos from last year’s Halloween party dessert. I’ll make up for this year with next year’s party!
We’ve been in the house for under a week and I’ve come to realize a couple things:
- We have NO nice furniture. I thought our living room set was pretty nice till the leg broke off our coffee table. Doh! We basically need to start from scratch in the furniture department, save a handful of pieces.
- Having no curtains or blinds stinks!
- Trying to wait (to a later phase of a kitchen reno) to unpack your kitchen is a bad idea (or at least expensive and unhealthy since you end up eating out so much).
- Packing select items (deodorant, soap, and other essentials) in an easy-to-find place is a good idea. I will do that next time.
- Yards are AWESOME!
- New paint stinks.
- Bailey NEEDS some rugs – his poor paws don’t agree with the hardwoods.
Welcome to my changing room. Since we have ZERO curtains or blinds, I have to change in the hallway – the only place I can shut out the world and have privacy. Sad, no? Curtains for at least one room are very high on our buy list right now.
Hubby’s been playing with Bailey in our new yard.
Bailey LOVES playing in our yard.
He likes frisbees…a lot.
Cutie pie!
I found this interesting hanging flower in our backyard. I have no idea what it is, but it looks pretty neat.
Hubby and I haven’t had time to unpack our kitchen at all, so we’ve only ventured out to get select essentials: candles (to try to rid the house of the stinky paint smell, including a soy candle by Method), lighters (for the candles), soap (I like to stay clean…plus this Method line is pretty cool), and coffee…because we couldn’t find the bag we packed…lol.
More house fun to come. Till then…
Cheers!
A nearby theme park, Carowinds, converts their park every October into SCarowinds – a ghoulishly-themed attraction. They have freaky mazes, scare zones, and even several of their normal rides open. I coordinated a small group to hit up the park on Friday with hubby and friends Kayte, Tracy, Matt and Ashley.
First up, we hit up Wild Wings for dinner. I got the chicken finger platter with honey mustard and a coke. The platter was HUGE, and I had a hard time finishing my portion, but hubby helped out.
Directly after dinner, we headed to the park to try to make the 7pm opening for SCarowinds. We got there a bit later than expected and ended up missing a couple (Matt & Ashley) we were meeting there, but we were still there plenty early to enjoy the festivities.
The park had scary decor and smoke/fog blowing everywhere. We hit up two of the Scare Zones – Feeding Frenzy and The Cemetery before looking for some rides.
First up, we rode the Vortex – a standing coaster. It was super fun! I snuck a quick photo just after the ride ended but before we had to get out of our seats.
Then, we went on a wooden coaster called Goldrusher. It wasn’t nearly as thrilling, but did have a good finish. We snapped these photos after the ride was over, as we waited to pull into the gate.
Next, we eyed the Carolina Cobra.
This ride featured two loops and some twists and went forwards one way and then sent you back through the ride BACKWARDS!
About to have a thrill
The ride was AWESOME! I’ve never done a roller coaster backwards and it was so fun and worth the wait.
After the Carolina Cobra, we decided to take a break from the rides and stick to the Halloween-themed attractions. But first, we needed some good theme-park-food.
FUNNEL CAKES! Hubby insisted we try chocolate syrup on ours. I didn’t care for it. I like my funnel cakes just with powdered sugar, but I still helped him out a little bit.
As the night went on, the lines seemed to get longer and longer. We hit up Cornstalkers (a scary maze)…
…then Dead Inn (another maze).
After that, we decided to call it a night and head out of the park.
But not before getting one final theme park snack – a giant pretzel. I helped my friend Kayte snack on one of these guys.
Oh, and we had to get a photo with one of the scary people wandering around the park. They do such a GREAT job with their makeup! Doesn’t this guy look freaky?!
SCarowinds seems to get better and better every year. Though we were pretty tired, we managed to stay out most of the night but didn’t get to see nearly half of the attractions. We still had a great time, though, so that’s all that matters. Plus, there’s always next year.
If you celebrate it, what are you doing for Halloween?
