Livin' the Dream in Lima

Date nights in the Bean Town are always rockin'. There's just so many choices of fun things to do, places to go, things to see. Or not. But our date night last night was fabulous! We started out at the fabo dollar movies. Where the movie tickets cost $2 a piece. Doesn't make much sense to me, but it's cheap! Their pops cost $4 for a 22-oz, so we supplemented with our beverages of choice from the gas station. Shhh... don't tell. We saw Larry Crowne, with Tom Hanks & Julia Roberts. It was cute. We're thinking it was geared to the older generation because the theater was filled with couples 50+. Either that or we're the only youngens' who take advantage of the dollar movies.  After the movie, we motored on over to my new favorite place in town, Pete's Ice Cream. Trying to escape the picture... haha didn't work! Their soft serve is the best soft serve I've ever had. I got a cookie dough & Oreo avalanche, mad...

Okay, not really. But for the past few weeks. Ever since I got it in my head that I needed an ice cream maker, it's all I could think about. I was gonna wait until I saved up enough Swagbucks to get it for free, but that would've probably been December or so. And it's so much more fun to make ice cream in the summer! Even so, with the sale plus the amazon gift cards I already had, I got the Kitchen Aid attachment for just around $40! I was a happy girl. The thing with ice cream, I am learning, is that you have to plan ahead. The freezer bowl must be frozen at least 24 hours before you can even think about making ice cream, and the mixture that you freeze has to be thoroughly chilled as well. I decided to start my ice cream adventure with a Double Cookie Dough flavor, from Annie's Eats . Cookie dough is my Business Man's favorite, but not really mine. It is usually just lame-o vanilla ice cream with a few bits of cookie dough. And if you know me, you know ...

I haven't talked much about running in awhile. I've been out there, putting miles in, just not been talking about it.  Oh the sweet naivety I had before the marathon... I didn't have a clue what was coming. Ha! I mentioned that I found a running group here in the Bean Town , which has been so great! Although the 5:15am wake-up call is not so much fun. Especially when it is still 76*F with 95% humidity that early in the morning. But I guess it's better than the 110*F heat index by the afternoon/evening. Oh how I hated the cold back in February, but what I would give for a run in tights right now! It will be good once school starts up again (just one month away)! Because I will have my runs done before school - which is something I never used to do.  A lot of the people I have been running with are starting to train for the Columbus Marathon, on October 16. For about 24 hours I was convinced I was gonna run it, too. I'd have people to do all my long ...

One of the things I really missed when we lived in our apartment was entertaining. I missed planning parties, having people over, and cooking lots of yummy food. Back in college, we would plan fun 'parties' for the girls (and sometimes the guys) on the cross country/track team all the time. The Thanksgiving Extravaganza, Valentine's Brunch, NCAA Championship combined with an Easter egg hunt. Whenever there was a major holiday, we had a party. And I got to plan it. :-P And I loved it. So, when we moved into our new house, I got so excited to have people over! And they actually would be able to sit down somewhere! Heh.  Last night, we invited my Business Man's team along with their families over for dinner. We had great intentions of grilling, relaxing outside on our rockin' new patio, and playing some corn hole. Unfortunately the weather had different thoughts.  We were definitely cooped up inside with the A/C. But that didn't stop us   my Business Ma...

ICE CREAM!  July is National Ice Cream Month and yesterday was National Ice Cream Day! That's my kind of holiday. We celebrated with a trip to the ice cream shoppe for some Triple Chocolate Confusion and Raspberry Fudge. Yum. But sometimes you want an ice cream treat but don't want to leave your house. Like when it's 90*F outside with a heat index of 99. Because you will be sweating buckets just getting into your car. And by the time you get your ice cream cone and attempt to eat it, it will become a big puddle of ice cream soup on the ground. No bueno. That's why you should make a batch of these Homemade Ice Cream Sandwiches, and keep them in the freezer for those days when it's too hot to do anything but sit on the couch and watch HGTV. Or nap all afternoon. Or solve critical thinking math problems from your students' textbooks. Not that I do that or anything.  The cookie base is essentially the clone of an Oreo. But a bigger, badder, more cho...

Exciting times are a'happening here in the Bean Town. Summer is in full swing, and with it the heat and humidity have arrived. So we did what most normal people would do when it's 91*F with 91% humidity - buy a new patio set so that we can spend more time outside! :-P Not that we didn't like our old patio set; it just wasn't all that practical for entertaining. (The old one is still hanging out in the garage for those times when we have lots of people over.) Pretty! And very comfortable, if I do say so myself. New blogging station? There's even an outlet! And we finally upgraded from this guy: Cute baby grill! To this guy! Grown-up manly man grill! And of course we had to christen our new grill with our dinner selection tonight... Mango Mahi Mahi Tacos . AH!! MANGO! There's really not a recipe for these tacos, but we looove them. You have to live near a Meijer , though. We use their pre-marinated mango mahi mahi, then top it wit...