Hello Monday

Linking up with Holly and Sarah for Hello Monday

Had a fun filled winter weekend:

Friday evening, Alyssa was not at home. Dinner for Donnie and me was frozen pizza (though heated... we didn't eat it frozen 😏 ).  I normally put way more effort into dinner but... sometimes I don't. Our friend Doug came over to do some music playing with Donnie in the basement. We all got caught up before then. When the boys went to the basement to play, I talked to my sister on the phone and read my book. 

Saturday, I woke up early and ran and then when Alyssa woke up, I asked her if she wanted to go to the running store with me. She said that she did so we went to Runners Plus. It's the nearest running store to us and it has an annual sale of 40% off most of its inventory to make room for spring arrivals. It is a "big" event in the local running world since it reduces prices on great products so much (pre pandemic it was 50% off which was obviously even better). Alyssa was excited to see some Lululemon products in the sale in her size. She didn't like any of the running shoes that were part of the sale but I found a pair of shoes. 

Alyssa pointed out that we weren't too far away from a Dunkin' so we had to stop in. She got her favorite drink and I, while not a coffee drinker at all, got...

... a donut. I'm not a big donut eater. Something about them- maybe their cloying sweetness- renders them something that I don't dislike but very rarely go out of my way to consume. Like, I will be in a Dunkin' forty times and only one time be tempted by a donut. Saturday was that day. I am a sucker for most things twee and heart shaped so I bought this to eat. 

Running shoes and Lulu's- our purchases at the running store 

In the afternoon, this was my tableau:

Kindle with a good book loaded on it (a Wilkie Collins novel), Valentine's decor in the background, a big ol' container of M&M's at my disposal and a Dr. Pepper Zero to sip. 

Saturday late afternoon, Donnie and I went to Liberty Township to eat at Cheesecake Factory for an early Valentine's Day meal. When I was putting up our Valentine's Day decor, I found a CF giftcard in the bin. It was misplaced there as that is not where we store gift cards, lol.  That's what got CF on my mind so I suggested it to Donnie. We got to the restaurant at 4:30 pm and there was a forty-five minute wait. Thankfully the buzzer timer things are of the past so we were able to get text updates regarding our table. We used our wait time to check out some stores in the vicinity. We went to Dillards and a couple of other stores. We happened upon this restaurant, a steakhouse, and as we were very hungry at this point (Donnie had not eaten much at all and I'd just had a bagel, the donut from DD and couple of M&M's from my M&M vat) we decided to see if we could get a table right away here. It was a steakhouse called Son of a Butcher (I cannot not capitalize proper names even if the proprietor of the proper noun place does not capitalize it (two wrong don't make a right!!)).

We couldn't, as it were, get a table at all for they only took reservations on the Saturday before Valentine's Day. The inside decor was as eclectic (I got these photos from its website) as its outdoor decor, lol. 

Our wait time at Cheesecake Factory didn't end up being as long as we were originally told so we ate in the staid (compared to S.O.B) restaurant...

Donnie ordered a piece of cheesecake for Alyssa and him to go. I feel about cheesecake similarly as I do about donuts: I know that I wouldn't not enjoy the sensation of eating a piece of cheesecake but a piece never sounds that good to me or is that tempting to me. Now what is tempting to me... two M&M cookies sandwiching a thick layer of frosting (talk about cloying sweetness, I know. But this sounds good to me every day!!). Oh yes, after dinner, we picked this up at a Great American Cookie store that was near CF.

Sunday, I woke up early and went on a run in my new Brooks. 'Twas a cold run but the temperature was expected to rise quite a bit.

We went to church which was good and then headed home for just a couple of hours. I had volunteered to go snow tubing with the youth group which started later afternoon and went into the evening. If the Bengals had made it to the Superbowl, this event was not going to happen on Sunday. But with them not making it, the event was held the Sunday evening of the Superbowl. Snow tubing was so much fun but very tiring... We were able to go up the hill to tube down it probably twenty times! Lots of fun and laughter with the students and a great, if tiring, way to end the weekend.

I liked the lift up the hill almost as much as I liked going down the hill :).  No pics of going down because I was holding on to the tube each time I went down. 

Good times...The bus ride back to the church with many energized middle and high school students was trying on my middle age sensibilities (someone kept exclaiming loudly and over again that he'd lost a sock... (among other sounds)) but it was worth it ;).