Beer, Baseball, and Birthdays

What a difference a day makes!  After having a minor freak-out over how busy my week was, I decided to take a "mental health evening" and stay home from church activities on Wednesday to do some much-needed catching up on household chores as well as just get some time to myself.  The evening started with quite a spectacular rainstorm, which I assumed would put a crimp in my plans for a bike ride that evening.  Luckily the storm cleared after about an hour and I was able to get in a ride in that brief low-humidity window that follows a good storm.

Between the physical activity and the gorgeous weather, I was able to clear my head and start to look forward to the rest of my week.  Of course, it didn't hurt that I have fun things on the calendar for Thursday, Friday, and Saturday evenings!  But I can manage to stress myself about fun things too, if I don't get a little downtime in there to balance it out.


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Originally uploaded by kerner

Last night, Matt and I went out to dinner with our dear friends Will and Nicole and their 1-yr-old daughter (see her in the green & pink striped.  We see them all the time these days, since Matt and Will conspired to convince me that we needed to buy quarter-season tickets to the Springfield Cardinals, which just happen to be right next to Will and Nicole's quarter season tickets.


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Originally uploaded by kerner

Before the game, we went to Maria's to celebrate Nicole's birthday (that's where the "beer" part of the blog post title comes in.  I mostly needed something to add to the alliteration.  But - Negra Modelo - yum!)

I asked Nicole what her coworkers did for her birthday and she told me about this fantastic breakfast spread they brought in for her, including some wonderful homemade granola.  Well... what a coincidence!  Guess what I brought for her birthday!  (excuse the messy counter)  I used Africankelli's recipe, and it turned out very well (if I do say so myself!)  What a great gift, too - relatively cheap and easy to make, and it makes a TON of granola.  (1 jar as a gift and 3 for me?  Yes, please!)

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Originally uploaded by kerner

I am not really much of a baseball fan, but I am so happy that we bought those baseball tickets.  We were already friends with Will and Nicole, but we are getting to be so much closer from spending all this time together at the games.  I may even be a Cardinals fan by the time the season is over!