Read Reid's Blog

July 22, 2004

What an awesome day.

The predicament:  I slept in and decided to clean up the house while Andrea was en route to my house.  I went to the mailbox to mail back Netflix DVD’s, but when I returned to my house, I realized I had locked myself out!  It really sucked, since it was over 95 degrees outside and our family doesn’t have a hidden key anywhere around the house.  So, I waited for Andrea to get there, and I climbed on the top of her Altima onto the roof of my house and then proceeded to take off the screen of my window and go through my window I had luckily chosen to open this morning because my room was stuffy.  It was initially very scary to jump from car to roof and swing myself onto the shingles, but I managed and once on the roof, it was really easy to get inside.  I don’t know what I would’ve done if I had locked myself out without Andrea on the way.  Well, after that, things could only go uphill, and they did!

Meal and Chill:  Andrea and I had yaki soba noodles for lunch, which was mad good.  We threw in some onions and green onions as a garnish after they were fried.  Since that wasn’t very filling, we made a banana, strawberry, blueberry smoothie.  I threw in Diet Sprite as the liquid, which made it kind of interesting, but not as carbonated as I would have liked.  We played some DDR and hung out.  I then took her back home because she had violin lessons.

Shopping:  Since I was in the area, I went to Old Navy.  Working in retail at Express has really made an impression on how I feel when I walk into other clothing stores.  I notice if clothes are folded, the layout of the store, if the employees are happy and if they’re greeting people when they walk in, and also what kind of clothes are being sold.  Since Old Navy has such great deals, the clothes really sells itself.  I found a $38.00 jacket for 9.99 that I can use for cold weather in California, so I bought that.  It was a sweet deal, since I used the rest of my gift certificate and ended up paying less than $5.00 for it!  I then went to Bank of America at Schnucks to deposit some checks.  I then shopped for dinner tonight.  I figured I would make some flank steak with Andrea, but needed some other things to spice up the meal.  I picked up the steak sirloin, but also picked up some orange juice for future smoothies, mushrooms to saute on the side, watermelon, sparkling cider for a drink, and some Ted Drewes strawberry custard.  I set up the dining room table for a nice meal, and shut the door so Andrea wouldn’t see it.  HEHE.

Cooking:  Andrea came over and we made the marinate for the flank steak.  It smelled really good – soy sauce, garlic, flour, sugar, and some bourbon made it smell really good, and we knew it would go well with the steak.  While that was marinating in the fridge, we ate some watermelon and cheese/sausage with crackers.  I made rice while Andrea prepared some of the mushrooms using the marinate.  We broiled the flank steak, which really let the meat stay juicy and yummy.  I had Andrea get the kitchen table ready, but at the very last minute, told her we should eat in the dining room.  So, we moved there and she saw the table already set up. 



Obviously, it was a nice dinner.

More chill:  Eric came over and he finished off our flank steak and some of the mushrooms and some of the rice.  I guess one thing about cooking is that you dirty a lot of dishes, and washing it all is kind of a pain.  But, it’s worth it for good, real food.  We then watched Kissing Jessica Stein, a pretty funny and interesting about a woman who experiments with lesbianism and discovers more about her sexuality.  Although I felt like there were some loose ends that weren’t tied up when the movie concluded, it was defintiely satisfied with it, especially when comparing it to the awful movie we saw yesterday – Cafe Au whatever.  We then played DDR and talked.  After Eric left I practiced Ave Maria on my cello with the help of Andrea.  I really hope I do okay on that piece during the wedding on Saturday.  We then watched some really old home videos, some I’m actually never seen before.  There was a video of me giving a tour of my St. Louis house, which made me pretty motion sick.  We then stuck in the second tape in our collection, which had lots of footage from our Iowa house – my sister feeding me (and eating my food!), going to a fair, and running around the house.  It was so funny to watch them!  I think I’m going to make it a summer project to preserve these videos by putting them on a DVD or something.  That should be lots of fun, and it’ll bring back a lot of happy memories!

What an awesome day!