Jennifer's 365 Project

The mother of Chris's friend from junior high and best friend (also named Chris) passed away earlier this month. Chris and I drove over to the east side of the state (Carleton) for a memorial service and to spend some time with Chris.

After their talk, Adam and Comfort came to hang out a little more.
And then Dan came over. Hooray for Dan!
We all got to hang out, catch up on things, and enjoy tasty brownies (not pictured). It was a pretty fun evening!

Adam and Comfort are in town for a few days for a panel presentation at Kendall and a book signing at Vault of Midnight downtown. Hooray!

Hooray for kitty birthdays!

I finally used the coupon I received in December with my Loot Crate. So I picked up an adorable cat tshirt (Lord of the Rings themed) and they threw in a random mens small shirt as part of their A Stupid Small Shirt promotion.

I really need to stop buying shirts there. I'm running out of room for them.

Today has been a pretty laid back Sunday with lots of reading and a few errands.

February's Loot Crate is here and this month's theme is warriors. There's an adorable bow tie, a cute woot shirt, coupon for a comic and more. 

Now that there is a Hungry Howies just around the corner from us, I've really been craving some flavored crust. So with a plan to finish of House of Cards, we picked up pizza for a Friday night in.
And because Chris doesn't like cajun crust, I even got my own little pizza, sprinkled with spicy goodness.

The photos, by the way, were taken with Chris's Galaxy Gear. While I think the camera in the wrist strap is silly (and something only a young James Bond fan would really need to have), it does take pretty decent photos!

And just like that the sunshine is gone the next day. It's still chilly out, and it's been raining today, so I wandered through the skywalk as usual in the winter. The Devos Place always has interesting things they're setting up for in anticipation of events on the weekend. This time it's boats!

Hooray for sunshine! It's been awhile since there's been a blue sky.

The next patch in the long saga of the Guild Wars 2 villain Scarlet came out today, so I popped into the game to check things out. This time she's invaded the main human city Lion's Arch (which serves as the main city in the game).
They even set parts of the town on fire! Nice touch.

I'm ready for February to be over now. And we can skip March.

We spent part of the chilly Sunday afternoon playing a modified Settlers of Catan for 2 players. There are a few different variations that we've tried - one that involves using all the hexagons and one that does not. Both are fun in their own right.

Today is the first day in years that I slept in to nearly 10am. So of course I laid down on the couch and then napped the afternoon away. Of course.

Hooray for Valentine's day, which meant giant (and delicious) cookies at work!

Dan came over this evening to hang out. It was an awesome evening filled with delicious pizza and fun conversation.
We even played some kinect-fueled video games!

I've been patiently waiting for tonight for the Shen Yun performance. I really don't like musicals, but I do like choreographed dancing. I should probably make an effort to see more ballet performances...
Anyway, tonight was the Shen Yun performance, so we spent the evening downtown after work. The show very fun to watch, and they used a digital screen in an interesting way to provide a background to each piece. I'm really glad we got to see it.

If you're wondering why the program has water stains on it...well, that's because on our way back to the car I tried to get through some flooding quickly and slipped and fell. Water on your coat turns to ice very quickly when it's 18 degrees Fahrenheit out. Made for a chilly end to an otherwise warm evening. Next time I won't try to run.

I'm still trying to use Xbox Fitness most days of the week. I'm following along with a bunch of people on the XboxFitness subreddit, and I've found the MOSSA videos everyone is doing this month fun, but they're more single purpose, so I'm having a little bit of a harder time this month. All of the videos are 30 minutes, but some are cardio and some are weight training, whereas the video series from January while just as long, were cross-training videos. I suppose that was better to start off with. I don't think I could have started off the bat with 30 minutes of cardio.

Anyway, now I find myself either doing all cardio or doing some weight training videos and then supplementing with some short cardio, like tonight. After being gone at work for most of the day it's hard to let working out suck up more than an hour of my evening. I have books and video games waiting for me!

I'm still enjoying the whole thing and I do notice a difference, if only in my attitude thanks to endorphins.

The cat is still unhappy at being locked out of the room though. Poor guy. He wants so desperately to lay on the floor in my way.

I'm really starting to miss hanging outside on my lunch and reading. The skywalk is nice, but I miss sitting outdoors.

Admittedly we let a lot of snow pile up on the deck (and table). So I spent part of the afternoon clearing snow three feet deep. Good exercise, if not a little rough on my shoulder and arms.

January's Loot Crate came with a Star Wars PocketModel (card game) Ground Assault pack. We don't play the card game, but that doesn't mean we can't assemble the models that came with the pack!
I put together the three B-Wings and Chris assembled the Clone Turbo Tank. They're cute little models. It's a pity the pack didn't come with a full deck - we totally would have tried a round or two.

As you can see from Chris's photo, we're getting quite the ice formation out back.

Why not?

I'm never going to see the grass again...

Every time I look at these stylish silhouettes for the bathroom, I giggle.

Every year after the North American International Auto Show in Detroit, Grand Rapids has a mini-auto show. So while wandering in the skywalk today I watched them set up some classic cars, as well as this replica of Meijer's Thrift Market car.

I spent much of today trapped under a napping cat, trying to read a book. Even in his sleep he gets jealous and finds ways to block the pages. That look of contentment almost makes up for it.
By the evening I realized I hadn't done much in the way of cooking or baking, which meant nothing was prepared the work week in terms of breakfasts or lunches. So I opted to try a recipe we got in the mail on a post card (and is exactly the same as this recipe). Hopefully this makes a tasty meal tomorrow!

I had breakfast plans with an old co-worker and friend this morning, and no amount of snow was going to stop me from a tasty breakfast and good company.

I'm so ready for this winter to be over.