It's not the last day of December, and I do know that, but I wanted to go ahead and do this post today. Who knows!? I might have something super exciting this weekend to report on Monday, or I might want to do a nice, tidy, end-of-year post. So today I'll tell you what I learned in December. (This is also an admission that I am unlikely to learn anything new in the next three days. Ha!)
Anyway! Here are the things I've learned this month. Did you learn anything fun this month?
1. My Financial Aid job seems like 100 lifetimes ago.
I stopped by my old IWU stomping grounds earlier this month as I passed through town. I visited my office suite where I worked for a total of fifteen years, and it doesn't even feel remotely familiar anymore. There are only two people in that office that worked there when I did, my office is empty, and nothing about the place feels familiar in any way. Though I have many fond memories of the people I worked with across that span of time, the job itself feels so far away now.
2. Ryan learned what a carriage house is...and that he owned one for fifteen years!
On our anniversary trip, we stayed in an Airbnb that was a carriage house. He thought Carriage was the last name of the house owners. (That cracked me up!) Once I explained what a carriage house is, he said, "Oh! Like I owned at my old house?" Yes! He owned one for fifteen whole years and didn't even know it!
3. Ashley Williams is Kimberly Williams-Paisley's sister.
I was watching Home and Family on Hallmark one day (I still miss the old hosts!) and they had one of their Christmas movie actresses on to promote a movie. In the middle of conversation, she said she was Kimberly Williams-Paisley's sister. (You remember her...Father of the Bride? Brad Paisley's wife?) How did I not know this!?!?!? (Fun fact: I texted that info to Ryan, and he said, "They don't look alike." I told him I was just about to say to him, "I totally see it now that I know.") THEN I learned that Ashley also played Jim Gaffigan's TV wife when he had a sitcom for a brief period of time. We watched that every week and I never put together that she was the Hallmark actress.
4. I'm glad I started my Christmas gifts in July.
I made my gifts this year, and I started all my research and brainstorming this summer during a random day of boredom. Back then, of course, I had NO idea all the chaos that would ensue in the last quarter of our year, so I had no idea how happy I would be that bored-in-the-summer Bekah got a head start on those presents!!
5. The first Monday of the year is when the most divorces are filed.
NO. We are not participating. But I was reading through a list of holidays/observances and Divorce Monday was sitting right there. I guess the site moderators figured that one might raise a few questions because they listed that explanation on the side. Post-holiday, post-tax-credit happenings, I guess.
6. I prefer the air fryer tots to the fast food tots now.
Fun random fact about my life: even though I'm in charge of my own schedule and can do whatever I want, I pretty much
never go shopping. Like you know how some people just take an afternoon and head out for shopping and lattes? I don't. But I needed to get Ryan's stocking stuffers, so I took an afternoon this month and went out on the town. I stopped at some stores to window shop, some to try on clothes, some to shop for him, and at the end of my day, I stopped at Sonic for a giant tea and a small order of tater tots. I
love their tots. Or I did. It turns out that I've gotten super used to the ones Ryan makes in the air fryer. (Not frequently, but we do it now and then.) They're so much crispier...and there's not a stitch of oil!
4 comments:
So funny about Ryan and the carriage house!!
I am so curious about the air fryer!!
I sometimes randomly get things done way ahead of time (the best example I can think of is when my kids had birthday parties and I would get the goodie bags done three weeks in advance) and think it was unnecessary to be doing that task so much in advance. But then when the event is close at hand, I'm super glad that I did the task already (kind of like you and your Christmas presents).
Interesting about the air fryer. I've read reviews of them and when I read one that says the final product tastes better than a real fried product, I assume it was a paid review. Now, I completely trust you, plus you weren't doing a review of the product so I believe you about the tots. It just doesn't seem possible :).
Tamar and Maria - In full disclosure, we don't actually own the fryer. (Facepalm.) It's Ryan's mom's, and we borrowed it back at Mother's Day. She hasn't been doing much cooking, so we kind of still have it. (EEK!!!) We haven't fully explored its capabilities yet, but we haven't been let down yet. The only thing I noticed a difference in was the springroll experiment. One of Ryan's co-workers is from the Philippines, and her mom makes these AMAZING homemade springrolls. They deep fry them and share them with us sometimes. One time she gave us uncooked ones and we prepared them in the air fryer. They definitely tasted more baked than fried, but they were still good. That was just the biggest difference I'd noticed. We keep a huge bag of tots in the freezer for Ryan to cook up whenever he's not feeling my veggie side dish, and he'll make himself a side of tots for the meal. They are so crispy when they come out. We really really like them. I have picked out a thing or two to try in there soon just to see. But for tots, I give it a two thumbs up!
Are the spring rolls called lumpia?
Post a Comment