Back from the Grave

Happy Thanksgiving from beautiful snowy Vermont!

We arrived here yesterday evening, and after chatting with my parents and getting Riker settled, Matt and I headed out for a little birthday dinner with my good friend Julie, her sister and her brother-in-law. We went to a little Italian place in Montpelier, Sarducci's, where we had a table on the water with the snow falling outside and twinkling white lights all around. So picturesque. It's good to be home!

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It's been a whole week since I've had a chance to post, so we'll do a quick catch-up on the happenings since last weekend. I've been dealing with a slow burning flu/cold for about the last 5 weeks, which has been annoying to say the least, but on Sunday the thing turned mutant and I felt like I was on my death bed. Riker also caught croup, so our whole house has sounded like a giant infirmary. Needless to say the blog got back burnered since I was crawling into bed every night right after work, but thankfully I got into the doctor this week and he gave me some meds to clear things up - I even got an inhaler since my lungs were wheezing so badly - and I'm finally feeling normal again. Phew!

So that said, here's a peek at what's been going on before and post-death bed.

Saturday was a pretty normal day, but that evening we had plans with a bunch of our good friends (12 to be exact) - the same ones we went to Labrador Lounge in September - for a dinner to catch up.

We went to Ryan Michael's Riverfront Grille in Brick and it was quite good, but the company was even better. ;)

We all shared appetizers, and then I ordered Asian salmon and crispy spinach for my entree.

With the most amazing mashed potatoes I've ever eaten on the side. I also had a few bites of Heather's fish tacos.

Pretty much everyone ordered dessert, which almost never happens, but when I heard "warm chocolate chip cookie sundae" I was sold. Talk about a monster dessert!

The rest of the weekend was pretty ordinary. Oatmeal, reading, tea (um, sugar cookie tea?!), laundry, laying on the couch watching football praying for cough relief, and a little baking for my office Thanksgiving potluck party.

And in not-so-ordinary happenings:

Matt and Riker got into a car accident :( Thankfully they were not harmed at all, which is the most important thing. But we just heard from the insurance company yesterday that they're calling it totaled. It's a little sad and feels like the end of an era since Matt's had a 4-Runner for as long as I've known him, and we brought Riker home from the hospital in that car. But it was getting older and starting to need some fixing up, so we had been planning to trade it in soon anyway. If it had to happen, now was the best time. I guess next weekend we'll be looking for a new car. Eek!

Alright, I'm off to spend some time with my family and get my cooking on. Have a wonderful holiday weekend!