It's official

The apartment is officially on the market for a subletter! I posted it this morning and am just waiting for my phone to start ringing off the hook with people who are dying to come and live there. That is the way it works, right? Please?
Other than that, I'm looking forward to the weekend. Tonight is a small fall fest party at a friend's place with games and laughs and apple cider martinis. Tomorrow is a photo shoot in Lake Geneva with the lovely Kelly (my brother and I are having pictures taken as a gift for my dad's 60th birthday). And on Sunday morning I get to run around with the toddlers all morning while their parents worship upstairs. Fun times!

This is HUGE!

I have made a very big decision recently. Despite the fact that our lease just began earlier this month, I have come to the conclusion that it is time for me to move out and get a place of my very own! My roommate is a lovely person, it's just time for me to have my own space. I am sure that with my budget and the neighborhood I want to stay in, it will be a small space. But, it will be MY space! There are a lot of things that still need to be worked out but I'm hoping to be in my new place starting Dec 1 (Jan 1 at the latest). I'll keep you posted.

Apple Picking and Fall Stuff

Seeing as how it looks like I am going apple picking again this weekend, I thought maybe I would share a bit about my apple picking adventures two weeks ago. A few friends and I headed to the lovely town of Hobart, IN for a day of apple donuts, apple cider, apples picking, pumpkins and other fall-type things.
The colors on the trees were beautiful!
M had to climb way into the middle of the trees to gather MacIntosh apples as her hubby was adamant about ONLY wanting MacIntosh!
The rest of us asked the mighty T-man to climb the trees for the best apples for us.
Baby brother happily acted as our official taste tester for the day. The nice thing about this place was that you could just pick what you wanted and then paid by weight for what you picked. I've been to other places where you have to pay ahead of time for huge bags and then deal with splitting things up at the end. This was much better for a group.

Of course, I picked more apples than I had intended to pick so I had to figure out what to do with them all. This past weekend I was up at my parent's house and on the advice of some friends I made a big batch of applesauce.
First, peel and chop a bunch of apples.
Put them in a pot with water, sugar and cinnamon (a little nutmeg is nice too) and simmer for about 20 minutes, or until the apples are soft.

Let them cool down just a bit and then mash them up with a fork or a potato masher. I enjoyed a small bowl immediately while it was still warm and it was tasty! The rest went in the fridge and I'm still enjoying it this week. I have always love applesauce but the nice thing about homemade is that you can make it a little chunkier and can leave pieces that still resemble apples. And, it makes the house smell incredible!


Can I tell you about a few things that I love in my parents' house? One of the best things in their kitchen is this: It sits in the middle and acts as a great work space. It's a giant butcher block. There are cutting boards that come out of the sides of it but the whole thing is a cutting board. You can cut on it, put hot things on it, roll out cookies, whatever. I really don't remember a house of ours where this was not somewhere. The current green legs are not the original legs though. It's first set of legs were the same height but were very basic and square. Then, in one house my mom decided to use this as a small coffee table and so the legs got cut down very short. Then they moved again and didn't have a place for it as a coffee table but still wanted to use it. So, off with the old legs and on with these! It's pretty much indestructible so I fully anticipate that I will be the owner of it someday!
You know what else I like? My mom has about a million dishes in her house! This is one closet filled with various dish sets and serving pieces. Guess what? It's not the only place in the house where dishes are hiding!

Tag! I'm it!

I was tagged to do this about a million years ago. So, here you go!

4 Things on my to-do list for today:
*Book a caterer for an event next month
*Do some more reading so I don't look like a total dork at book club tonight.
*Pay Bills
*Go grocery shopping

4 Random things I miss about California:
*See's Candy Lollypops
*The OCEAN!! (Lake Michigan is big but it does not smell or sound the same as an ocean)
*Many, many friends
*Good Mexican food around every corner

4 Jobs I've had:
*Ice Cream Scooper at Baskin Robbins
*Estimating assistant intern at DPR (Construction/General Contractor)
*Student worker in the Psych department at APU
*Office Staff at Mission Springs Camp and Conference Center near Santa Cruz, CA

4 Movies I've watched more than once:
*Ocean's 11
*Princess Bride
*The Cutting Edge (I loved this when I was younger!)
*The Devil Wears Prada

4 Favorite Albums:
(I seriously don't think I could name an album to save my life. I like music, but I never know who it's by!)

4 Places I've lived:
*San Diego, CA
*Pasadena, CA
*Chicago, IL
*Minneapolis Area, MN

4 Places I've been:
*San Francisco, CA
*Dublin, Ireland
*Doncaster, England
*Whitewater, WI

4 Places I want to visit:
*Italy
*Boston in the fall
*Napa Valley, CA
*Greece

4 TV Shows I recently started watching:
(I just got rid of cable so I think that I have stopped watching more than I have started)
*America's Next Top Model
*How I Met Your Mother
*Pushing Daisies
*?

4 Favorite Meals
*Fillet Mignon with blue cheese and a red wine reduction
*Macaroni and cheese (not from a box)
*PIZZA!!
*Just about anything that comes with french fries on the side.

4 Things you may not know about me:
*Due to a weak hip, my left leg is frequently shorter than my right.
*I absolutely detest raw tomatoes but have no problem eating them in just about any cooked form
*I lived in California for almost 16 years and never once tried surfing
*I have an un-natural fear of riding horses.

I think that I am now supposed to tag 4 other people but all 6 of you who read this have either already done this or don't have a blog.

*Giggle*

I kind of want one of these.

I think they are hysterical. Maybe I shouldn't admit that I want one, but I don't care. And yes, I probably would use it.

Apples, apples, everywhere!

So, I went apple picking with some friends this weekend (more on that later when I'm in the mood to write about it) and I now have a large bag full of tasty apples sitting on my counter. Many of them are great for just eating as they are but some of them will be better if baked into something. I'm not a huge fan of apple pie, but I do love apple crisp! However, if I were to make an apple crisp (or three, with the amount of apples I have), I would end up eating most of it myself and that would be a bad thing.
Here's my question, does anyone know if I make up an apple crisp and then freeze it before baking, will it be ok? Or, will it all turn to brown mush? What else can I do with apples?
I spent good money on these apples and don't want them to go to waste!
Help!

The Post Office Strikes Again

This morning I was handed a letter that should have reached us sometime in August and stamped on the front of the envelope was:
"Found in Supposedly Empty Equipment"
This was not handwritten on the front, it was stamped. The post office has had this happen often enough that they have made a stamp to let people know that they haven't figured out how to make sure equipment is actually empty and mail gets delivered in a somewhat timely fashion. One would think that instead of having a stamp made for this purpose, they would just decide to take an extra minute or two to make sure that everything is out of the machines. But, maybe that is just asking a little too much.