Wrong? Maybe a little ...

Ya know how you can wrack up all sorts of freebies on your birthday? Free desserts, free coffee, free food, the works. Well, I think it's impossible to enjoy all of this in 24 hours and me, being me, hate to pass up something free. So I spread my birthday date to all of these different places throughout the year. For example, I just got my free Starbucks coffee coupon in the mail last week. Yes, my birthday is in March. Is this wrong ... perhaps a little. But it's not like I'm signing up with multiple birthdays, I just happen to enjoy spreading them out a little! Do you do this?

Kitty Visitors

Lance and I have discovered that there are approximately four cats eating out of the catfood bag in the garage: Fire, an orange and white kitty, a grey and black tiger kitty, and a ginormous black kitty. Apparently our garage is now a buffet for the neighborhood cats! Fire likes to sit at the window in the basement and meow at them when they eat at our buffet - in this picture he's worn out from visiting with all of his friends. Lance is putting the kibosh on the food frenzy - the food bag has been secured and there are no openings. Fie Fie is sad.

Favorite Thing: Greyness

These are my newest loves: my grey boots from Kohls and my grey OPI "You Don't Know Jacques!" fingernail polish. I love grey clothing and accessories. It's all very fall and winter appropriate. In fact I think grey is my latest obsession.

I'd also like to own these boots and these ones. Not in the budget.

We're not going to pay ... last year's RENT

Lance and I had date night and went to RENT at the DM Civic Center. Be jealous - I would be. We started off the evening with guacamole and prickly pear margaritas at Dos Rios, very delish. The made-at-your-table guac is my favorite thing about Dos Rios. I love eating out.

And then we had tickets to RENT! Because it wasn't a sold-out show, we bumped ourselves down a few rows. I love RENT, this is the second time I've seen the musical and definitely the best performance because Adam Pascal and Anthony Rapp were performing as Mark and Roger. It was fantastic and even Lance feigned enthusiasm. I love musicals, I think life should be full of choreographed dances and songs.

Ring of Truth

(Side note: Do you know how hard it is to take a picture of your hand? It's hard! Who likes my cool grey fingernail polish?! More about that in the future ...)

Funny story about my wedding ring. When Lance and I initially got engaged we went to Iowa Diamond and I picked out several different settings that I liked. Lance selected a setting and a center stone and proposed. I accepted, but decided that I wasn't sure about the ring. I made him take me back to Iowa Diamond, I looked through all the settings again and decided on a different setting other than what Lance had picked out. It was somewhat high maintenance of me, but I do love my wedding ring. However, an interesting question was posed the other day on a blog. If given the opportunity to get another ring (assume in this situation you've lost your current wedding ring and need a replacement), would you

A) pick out an exact replicate of your current ring
B) keep the center stone, but change the setting
C) pick out an entirely new ring

My response is C. I love my wedding ring, but I'm fickle and I like change ... please note I am perfectly happy to keep my current ring - I'm in no way ring shopping honey!

Caribou Coffee

Hands down, my favorite place to get coffee is Caribou Coffee. I love their coffee and I think the baristas there are happier than Starbucks baristas (especially in you compare the WDM Caribou on University to the WDM Hy-vee Starbucks). Here's something interesting I found out after a couple minutes of googling tonight: on Nov 12 Caribou will begin making all of their mochas, chocolate lattes, hot chocolates, specialty beverages and cold beverages made with either white, milk or dark Guittard chocolate at all Caribou Coffee locations nationwide. Instead of using reconstituted syrups, they'll be using all-natural, kosher and gluten-free chocolate, none made from more than 6 ingredients! Click here for the 411

If given the choice, are you a Caribou or a Starbucks person?

Lasagna Roll-ups

We had this yummy dish today. I probably should have had people over to eat with us as this was a huge pan of Italian goodness just for the two of us. It was the perfect meal - especially since we had assembled it the night before and all that was left was baking! Fun twist on lasagna and definitely a something you can make ahead of time.

Ingredients

1 egg, beaten
1 container (15 oz.) Ricotta Cheese
2 cups Shredded Italian Three Cheese Blend
4 green onions, chopped
1 Tbsp. Italian seasoning
1 jar (26 oz.) spaghetti sauce, divided
16 lasagna noodles, cooked
1/4 cup Parmesan Cheese

Directions
HEAT oven to 375ºF.
MIX first 5 ingredients until well blended.
SPREAD 1/2 cup spaghetti sauce onto bottom of 13x9-inch baking dish. Spread each noodle with 3 Tbsp. cheese mixture; roll up. Place, seam-sides down, in dish. Top with remaining sauce and Parmesan; cover.
BAKE 40 to 50 min. or until heated through, uncovering the last 10 min

Recipe: Kraft Foods' Food & Family Magazine Holiday 2009

Holla!

Two great deals:
1. Cooking Light Magazine for $5 for a 12 month subscription - holla!

2. Shu Uemura's famous eyelash curler on sale at hautelook.com for $10. You will need to sign up for an account - you can use me as the referral email - kld3783@aol.com and I can referral points. This eyelash curler is normally $19. I've been wanting to get one for quite awhile, I have very long stick straight lashes. This should help.

Yippie skippie for two great deals today!

Fab Friend

My friend Sarah and her two boys dropped off flowers for Erika and I at work. How lovely are the flowers and how lovely is my friend?! At first we thought they must be from our husbands - haha, the joke is on us. :)

Saturday Fun in Ames

This Saturday started out in Ames at one of our favorite college restaurants ... Hickory Park! Ohhh ... I love that place. It brings back fond memories of college and friends. I love everything about Hickory Park (well, I don't love their bathrooms. The lighting above the stalls is weird. If you've been there, you know what I'm talking about). I love their burgers, their bbq, their mashed potatoes and gravy, their pickles and their ICE CREAM creations. It makes me wish that we lived closer or there was one in Des Moines.

During this past year's United Way fundraising drive at work, I won two SUITE tickets to the Iowa State versus Oklahoma State University football game. Do you see our excited faces? It's because we have FANTASTIC seats. Indoor, with tv's, good bathrooms, complimentary food and beverages, and to Lance's delight - Coors Light bottles. You can't normally have beer at games, unless you have seats in a suite! I was thrilled about ISU Dining Services' triple chocolate chip cookies - not so much on the beverage side of things.

I think this is the first time we haven't been in the student section. It's not quite as raucous or spirited, something we both lamented.

It was a beautiful day. I really wouldn't have minded having normal tickets - not that I'm complaining or anything.

Here comes the team out of the famous fog tunnel - Lance said that he's never actually seen this before. I don't know where he's been, I've seen it at all the rest of the games we've been to.

Sadly ... Iowa State got pummeled by OSU. We're still hoping for another win to become bowl eligible! All in all, Iowa State has done better this year than anyone expected. I'll be happy enough with that.