I had spent the whole morning cleaning the apartment. I steamed cleaned the floor, and thoroughly cleaned the kitchen. By the time I was down it seemed like I had done many hours of exercise. I then realized that I had been cleaning for 2 hours straight. I figured that was a pretty good work out. I cut my wii fit work out a bit short.

I am having a girl’s night tonight and I am very excited. There will be mani/pedis and a movie. I am also trying out some new recipes from Hungry Girl. I am going to make spinach dip and the ooey gooey chili nachos. I think it will be loads of fun. I hope the food tastes good. It would be nice to satisfy the junk food cravings without blowing the diet. 

Last night when we got home we watched Gremlins, which I had not seen in a long time. It was loads of fun. We all went to sleep with the sounds of fireworks echoing around our apartment. So all in all an excellent start to my 3 day weekend. Josh closes tonight, but is off tomorrow. So I should have a pleasant end to the weekend as well.

Sometimes Chilton likes to help me blog. Pollard is above such human things, he is too much a proper sort of cat.

So I finally did it. I made sushi, kicking and screaming the whole way. I have really had a rotten week. I work my tail off and it is never enough. I am approaching a point of burn out quickly. I came home and Josh had already put on the sushi rice. I was stuck! The molds worked really well. I was amazed at how well it turned out. It made my day a bit brighter.

It had snow pea shoots, cucumber and asparagus. Josh gave it a rousing endorsement.

Josh made scallion pancakes. They were really tasty but a little dry. We have a favorite little hole in the wall called Dumpling King. They make the best scallion pancakes in the world.

My mom got us each a proper bento box. This is Josh’s. The pictures of my box did not turn out. We are watching The Civil War disk 2 today. NPR did a little piece on Gettysburg this morning and I knew what I wanted to watch when we got home. I started The Summer Book by Tove Jansson today. I am already in love with it. It captures that dreamy suspended quality of the best summers. My dad gave me the Moomin books eons ago and I have a deep love for them. This book has a similar charming quality, but a more adult perspective. The contrast between one beginning their life and one close to the end is deftly and bluntly handled. It makes me want to visit Finland in the summer and live on an island. I may not get my island, but Josh and I are planning very hard to go to Finland ASAP. 

The parade lined up on our side street. They completely closed off my street and I was worried Josh would not be able to get home.

We got a good deal of rain and everything is blooming and beautiful.

I found awesome Michael Kors shoes at half off. To top it off they are actually comfortable. Half price shoe sales are a little dicey, especially in the bigger sizes. I almost got plowed over a couple times.

Chilton loves sitting in Josh’s lap. He makes the silliest faces.

Ohhhh how I love my new mixer.

The lemon cakes turned out better than I could have expected.  They are very lemony with a surprising sweet burst of white chocolate.

The cookies Josh requested also turned out well. I added pecans at the last minute. They are chewy and delicious.

So excited about mixer fun this weekend. I have a couple recipes I want to try. Josh wants me to make cookies and I am making cupcakes as well. I have to clean the whole house first. I am going to be trapped in the apartment to some degree. There is a parade happening near here and if I leave I will have to park miles away.

I am off to pick up Josh and then we are going to dinner! Longer post and pictures tomorrow.

I had a truly yucky day yesterday. Josh made it a little better by surprising me with two things that made me very happy. One was Laurie Notaro’s new book, The Idiot Girl and the Flaming Tantrum. I have been a fan for a long time. No one can make me laugh out loud like her. He also got me the new Futurama movie The Beast With a Billion Backs. I enjoyed it more than Bender’s Big Score. I was in nerd heaven.

Today was one of those days that just dragged on and on. I could not wait to get home. Patients were fussy and cranky today. I just end up in a prickly mood at the end of the day. I really despise people who are so on the offensive that any comment is perceived as a verbal attack. It is exhausting and rattling. We recently bought out a discount optical that had to close, and it has brought nothing but trouble. It seems like all their patients are very particular and rude. They all also apparently got “special pricing”; it offends them that we are unwilling to give them extra discounts. Technically I am not supposed to take additional discounts on top of the insurance. There are also companies that state in their contracts with us that we cannot discount their merchandise. So these patients get very cross, “the other place did it” I pride myself on being a patient person, but it starts to slip when we go round and round and round.

I have decided to make cupcakes this weekend. After all I have to try the new mixer out. I am fortunate in having an enthusiastic taster in the house. I am also going to do a mega cleaning. That once a month scrub everywhere cleaning. Hopefully Josh will be off Sunday, so we can hang out but I am not keeping my fingers crossed. We got Be Kind Rewind, which we are both really excited about. Josh is finishing up his round of wiifit. I am trying to plan dinner but am at a loss. Tomorrow or the next day mixer pictures!

Possibly the cutest picture ever!

And new glasses! I really like them an awful lot.

I think that I’ll need to reread Shriek, an Afterword soon… but first, Lucius Shepard short story collection!

Day 4 of wiifit went well, though I am really sore. I have lost 2.4 pounds since I have started. I do about 25-30 minutes a day, trying to gradually amp it up. It is just so fun and perfect for me. I am never excited about exercise but I could not wait to get home and work through my aching stiff muscles. Starting with the yoga really helps me stretch out and makes the strength and aerobics sections a bit more tolerable. 

I finished In the Woods. Ummm I am a little unsure if what to say. I really loved parts of it an awful lot. The core mystery of the protagonist is fascinating and kept me interested. When I finished I found myself a bit frustrated. While I don’t need to have every mystery tied up in a neat little package, there was something very unsatisfying to me about the denouement, or lack thereof. I am thinking about getting the sequel, The Likeness, but I don’t know. So final verdict, fairly unsatisfied with the ending which slightly tarnishes the book in my mind. But only slightly still a worthwhile read.

Today was an okay day at work. I am actually caught up with insurance billing at the moment. Now on to the 1200+ frames I have to put into inventory. :p Customers were fairly well behaved which is nice. The doctor is talking about becoming a boutique dr. This seems like a really notoriously bad idea to me. The premise is you narrow down your patient list and they pay a yearly sum to have you at their beck and call. The only problem is this pretty much leaves us with the finicky, difficult patients. Also my boss is one of those people who HAS to be working all of the time. I am really not sure what he would do with all that extra time. Probably drive me crazy, already a favorite past time of his. More money =good. But crazy patients+stir crazy dr = sad Ashley.

That is it for now! Pictures tomorrow!!!!

Oh and my favorite word today is sinople!

Currently, I’m in the middle of rereading Jeff Vandermeer’s City of Saints and Madmen.  Vandermeer is one of my favorite authors (along with Tim Powers, Gene Wolfe, and M. John Harrison), so it’s always fun to revisit his books.