Past Week

    I am sorry for not keeping this updated for a while. However, I am confident that you will forgive me when I tell you just exactly what I have been up to. About a week ago, Ryan landed in Birmingham and his work told him that he would likely be there for a few weeks, which usually turn into a few months when we are talking about his work so we decided that it was time for me to drive home. I said my short good-byes and started the three day journey to Alabama.

Wyoming

    On the way there I entertained myself with new recipes and dinners I planned on making for our friends when I got there. BUT as soon as I got there we had to leave because one thing you can totally count on Ryan's work to do is exactly what you don't want and what you never expected. It felt like getting a puppy only to find out that your landlord doesn't allow them so you have to give it back to a meany poo face that is totally going to give your puppy a different stupid head name. So we drove the 2,000 miles back to Idaho.

     On the last day there was a snow storm the night before we got to Cheyenne, WY. The mini got a black eye from a road block and just twenty minutes later got stuck in a snow bank on an onramp which ended with a really fun tow cable ride from Big Al's. No one was hurt except I think Ryan was a little heart broken and mad at the snow.
     We spent our first weekend in Idaho up in Boise with Kat. She and Ryan finally got to meet each other for the first time after hearing about one another for over a year, I don't think we ever stopped laughing. First we played with poodles, then we went to Sockeye brewery and took the tour. We proceeded to get tipsy from le tour of 12 or more delicious brews. Next we went to the Piehole for a slice of potato bacon and pesto alfredo pizza. We walked to Urban for some cheap laughs and I drew a picture.

Only public bathrooms downtown.

    We filled a part of our day with grocery shopping in the bulk section at Winco for spices and Kat teasing Ryan about the bees in the honey. Later on we all embarrassed ourselves at a dive of a karaoke bar and then ate away the pain at West Side Drive Through. Nothing heals the pain of embarrassment better than hot mash potatoes. It was a great day.
    At the hotel I have been making dinner in the crock pot every night, basing a lot of my recipes off the what supplies I can take from the morning breakfast downstairs. Surprisingly they really do have a lot of things that come in handy.  The only spices though are tiny salt and pepper packages.

    Since we have been here I have made meatballs and cooked the pasta in the microwave, lemon basel chicken with wild rice and pumpkin soup, it tasted like butternut squash soup.

   I also made a pumpkin pie in the crock pot, well just the filling and then put that in a graham cracker crust but it turned out really good. Today I am making pot roast with red potatoes and carrots. I hope it turns out alright, I don't know anything about cuts of meat except what my grandma told me which is she just buys the cheapest roast and cooks low and slow, works for me, hopefully.

     Since crock pot cooking tends to not need your help, I fill the remainder of my day with projects. I have been down in the hotel office trying to hook up their printer to my computer so I can print off coupons because in order to print off the coupons you have to install a program to your computer which is a little weird but I think its because they keep track of what you print so you don't print a bunch of them. Ryan thinks its because they want to install spy wear on your computer which I am beginning to believe because my computer is slower than it was in Abu Dhabi but that could just be a combination of being on the far end of the hotels modem and cold weather.

     

    Taking matters into my own hands I have decided that it is high time I clean out my computer. I own a macbook and it does some extremely weird things when it comes to saving and organizing. I started in my iTunes yesterday and got through the A's only and had already cleaned off 15Gs of free space. When really all I deleted were songs that didn't play and duplicates of songs. While doing so I rediscovered Against Me!
    Apart from my battles with my computer and printers I also battle with dishes and a small sink that you would expect to find in a bar. I decided to make a reversible apron with all of my scraps to help with the splashing of soapy hot water on my clothes.

I used only really ugly fabrics, as a direct result of this decision this apron will end up being my favorite one. 

     The plan to run everyday has been going really well, we did it once and then Ryan hurt himself on his run and we haven't gone since. We do take the stairs though, three flights of stairs, go us! haha.