Meatless Friday Number Six

Wow, I can't believe next week is Holy Week!  I skipped Thursday because frankly, I don't think I did anything... I mean I was busy, but it was so boring that I'm not even going to bother.  Just a lot of laundry and started packing for the weekend but I will explain that for today.\

This weekend, I'm actually going so socialize.  With friends!  (Gasp!) I know what a concept!  After work I picked up my best friend Jean in Martinez at her new apartment, then we were off to the peninsula!  We're staying at my mom's, and we met 3 friends from high school.  I don't think I've seen any of them (except Jean) since our graduation!  Holy crap!  That is almost 10 years ago!  I was so excited to see them.  We met at Chipotle where one of them works, then off to have some drinks.  I'm only had a 1/2 of a beer.  It was so great to see them.  I'll spare the details and just show the pictures!

Jeannie's new apartment!

At the local bar after dinner.

Happy Birthday Dad!

Today, would have been my dad's 66th birthday.  Yes I know I'm 27 and my dad was 38 when I was born, I can do math believe it or not (at least a little) and while this may not be a big deal now, it was in the 80s.  One of my friends was shocked when she found out how old my parents were.  Of course, her mom was 19 when she was born, so there ya go!  So happy birthday dad!

I took the day off and met some cousins at Thunder Valley Casino in Lincoln.  It's a really nice Indian Casino.  We gambled for a bit.  It drove me crazy that you could smoke in there.  What is it with smoking and gambling?!  The longer we stayed the more it bugged me.  My clothes smelled like cigarettes when we left!  We met some more cousins that live nearby for lunch at the cafe in the casino.  I tried to find something that wasn't too heavy on the points.  I ended up having a NY steak and eggs (egg beaters to be presice).  After a 2 hour lunch (our family can get chatty) we did a little more gambling.  I was out about 80 bucks (ikk!) and I had 18 left on me so I was going to stop because it's depressing when you give a corporation $100 for nothing!  Except if it was for a charity, then I'd feel much better. But then, I thought while watching my aunt play, oh hell, just try a little more.  I played a few different games as we walked around, and we ended up going back to this game we played before called Gold Fish. 

It was fun.  I like the ones that you can get bonuses on.  By the time I got down to $3, I hit a bonus where you can choose a treasure chest and it opens up to show how many free spins you get.  I got 20 which was the highest number out of the 5 or so to choose from.   And I must have gotten 5 or 6 "big win" spins which added around $20 to my winnings, then I landed 4 bonuses (there are 5 lines) and a wild card in a row and it gave me another 12 spins.  I kept getting these big wins still and all of a sudden I see that I won 145 bucks!  On one go!  So my net was around 50 but still!  That's more than I had coming in!  All of my cousins were watching and even the guy sitting next to me was going Oh my God!  So by the time it stopped, I cashed out. 

I totally know it was my dad giving me some luck!  Last year on his birthday, I got my promotion, and this year, I win $145.  It's almost a little eerie...  I know the picture's bright.  It looked better on my computer then the rest...
When we got home, I rested for a while then got to cooking lunches for the next few days.  I tried out these garlic parmesan potatoes from TJ's and they were awesome!  They get nice and crispy in the pan.  Leftovers are just meh, but if you reheat them in a pan they'd be much better.

And now it's time to hit the hay!

How Did I Miss a WEEK of Updates?!

I don't know where the time went!  So I'll catch you up from Thursday through Tuesday mainly through picture because I can't remember some of it...

Thursday

Breakfast-

Lunch- My friend from work tried a new restaurant nearby.  It wasn't very good... I had a chicken sandwich with green chiles and pepper jack cheese.  Sounds good, but it was just meh...

I guess this was dinner...

Friday I remember more of.

Breakfast-

I had to take an early lunch because my mom came up for the weekend and she had to drop her car off at a mechanic to have a tune up, so we had a quick lunch at Carol's.  Egg beater Florentine omelet with hash browns and fruit.

For dinner, we were going to go to BJ's but there was an hour wait so forget that!  We went across the street to the Tokyo House, a local Japanese restaurant.  Both my mom and I both had the shrimp teryaki bowl. 

They brought out miso soup and salad.

Then the gigantic bowl!

 It was really good!  I'd get it again.  It normally comes with chicken or steak and 2 shrimp skewers, but we had them just give us shrimp since it was our 5th meatless Friday for lent.  The vegetables were really good!  They had a sweetish sauce they were cooked in, and I liked the fact you had to really dig to get to the rice.

The one thing I didn't like, too much sauce!

After dinner, we went to Barnes and Noble and Target to get some presents for the upcoming baptism/birthday party on Sunday.  Of course, I had to get dessert too.  I love the Cheesecake Factory Vanilla Cupcakes they sell at our Barnes and Noble!

My mom went to Restoration Hardware to start getting letters to put on her wall.  She got me a small S!

I don't know where to put it but I love it!

Once we got settled in, we rented The King's Speech on the TV in our room so Nick could see it.  I know it's still in theaters but sometimes certain hotels will have movies that are still out, so we rented that.  He liked it but still thought Inception should have won best picture. Whateva!

Saturday, we took a road trip to St. Helena to visit my dad's grave since his birthday is the 13th of April. We stopped at Dean & Deluca.

I love his store.  They are in the middle of remodeling.  I love all of the interesting things they have.

Next we drove over to the Napa Valley Olive Oil Mfg. to have lunch.  You wouldn't know it was there unless someone told you!  It's a little tiny place.  This is the only indicator that you're in the right place.

They have tables outside so we sat and ate our lunch.

This cute little dog decided to join us.  He/she really wanted some of our food though!

I love driving down the main highway.  It's so beautiful here!

 Here's Michael Chiarello's Restaurant, Tra Vigne

 I love the flowers on this house!

 Next stop was the cemetery. My mom got some black river rocks to make a cross over my dad's grave.

 What a view!

 Here's the finished cross. My brother had the idea to put white rocks around the edges to
make it pop.

 The moon was out too! 

After that, we went for a quick walk around St. Helena.

Hidden Mickey! Sort of anyway...

 Someone painted these posters.  They were cool.

 Went into Olivier and got some of their 25 year aged balsamic vinegar.  Yum!!! It's so sweet!

 Our favorite store Baksheesh!  It's all fair trade and such original items!  I LOVE this store!

 We really wanted to go into Woodhouse to get some chocolate, but we were 10 minutes too late!  :(

 Love the grapes on the street signs.

When we got back, we went to BJ's for dinner.  My mom and I split a burger and had salad.

 Then the 4 of us split a chocolate chip Pazookie.  Hot cookie with ice cream?!  Yes please!!!!!!!!!  It's like dessert porn!  OMG it's so good!

Sunday, I'm keeping short with no pictures.  We went to my cousin's son's baptism, then went back to his parent's house for a double birthday party for the baby that was baptized and his aunt (obviously my other cousin!)  They had sandwiches from whole foods.  Wish I took a picture but I didn't get a chance. Then we went back to the house, took a nap, and my mom and brother went home.

Monday-Just breakfast and lunch pictures...  Litterally not much else happened so, I'm not going to bother.

Tuesday- No pictures.  I gained .5 pound, but I'm okay with it.  I'm continuing with the walking so all is good with that!

Okay, I'm out!