Hello Monday - October 23, 2023

    

I'm linking up with Holly and Sarah this morning for Hello Monday and a weekend recap. 

Malone and I had a quiet day on Friday - a couple of loads of laundry, this week's episode of The Great British Baking Show, setting up the DVR to record The Hallmark Channel's Countdown to Christmas movies for this week.  The Pacific show time is just about Malone's walk time so I set the DVR and we just watch the movie later in the evening.

Checkin' It Twice was very cute - it made me want to move Idaho Falls, such a charming little town.

Vic walked Malone when he got home and did a quick sweep of the backyard with the pooper scooper as the gardeners were coming on Saturday morning and we didn't want them to end up with any nasty surprises on the bottoms of their shoes!  They really are so wonderful this time of year with all the leaves falling everywhere.  After the yard sweep, we headed out to dinner - fish and chips for both of us - and came home to find Malone did just fine in the laundry room.  He had a couple of accidents in the house (on the wood floors thankfully) which we weren't quite sure were due to a stomach upset or just a form of separation anxiety so the laundry room is a better option.  His crate is in there with the door open and a comfy crate pad so he can lie in there or just on the floor.  If I know him, he probably lay two inches from the door waiting for Vic to return!

On Saturday, I headed out for a busy day while Vic worked some more on figuring out why the big TV is not working.  He bought and downloaded the service manual on Friday to go a little more in depth with the electronics.  I headed out to meet my lunch bunch group which is always lovely.  My food ended up coming out when everyone else was just about done which was a bummer.  We ended up chatting for about two hours.  I left there to head to my manicure/pedicure appointment and came home with this color on my toes.

It's Essie In Stiches which I love but I kept my fingernails clear as I broke one pretty badly and will wait until they are all about the same length before going with a color.  Anyone else do that?

After my nail appointment, it was off to the gourmet bakery for bagels and a breakfast bread for Vic, then to World Market for a little browse.  Do you buy Advent calendars for your family or for yourself?  There is an amazing selection - chocolate, shortbread, jams, cocoa, and cocoa bombs as well as tea, coffee, and even noodles.  Some are the traditional 24 days, others only 12.

I headed to Ulta for some makeup sponges and The Body Shop's Advent calendars are out too. There are three versions this year, this is the smaller one.

Last stop was Hallmark where I returned an ornament.  I always fill out a Wish List each year and they call me in July and October to pick up what has come in.  Somehow an ornament I thought was coming in in October came in early so I picked it up a few months ago and then picked it up again in October.  The refund was an easy process and I resisted buying anything else!

By the time I got home and Vic got back with Malone (he had been for a flu shot, a haircut, and a quick trip to the commissary for me while I was gone and Malone stayed in the laundry room without incident), we felt a pizza would be the best option for dinner so we loaded Malone into the truck and headed to pick one up.  Pizza and a Hallmark movie, can't beat that!

Sunday we visited a new church.  We've visited a lot of churches over the 30 years we've been moving around and each one has always given us some sort of new visitors' gift.  It's usually a gift bag with current flyers, information about the church, and a coffee mug.  This church's gift was similar but the lady that gave it to us also gave us a second coffee mug which was lovely since there are two of us.  We came home to enjoy coffee in our new mugs along with bagels with cream cheese, smoked salmon, and capers for brunch.  Forgot to take a photo as usual but it was delicious.

Vic returned to the TV while I made chocolate cupcakes and chopped up some cherries to soak in my version of kirsch (brandy with cherry juice) for Sunday's dessert.  It's another salute to a liberty port from Vic's deployment, Germany this time.  I made Hunter's Schnitzel, spaetzle, and red cabbage with deconstructed black forest gateau for dessert.  We completely skipped the appetizer because I forgot all about the pretzel bites and found them in the toaster oven when dinner was over!

Table décor, menu card, Hunter's Schnitzel and spaetzle

Red cabbage and deconstructed black forest gateau (split chocolate cupcakes with kirsch brushed on the bottom layer, then soaked cherries and whipped cream on top, with chocolate frosting piped on the top layer)

The sauce was made with Maggi's Hunter's Schnitzel seasoning mix which was delicious.

And that was our weekend, how was yours?