What I love! | Peaches Prattlings

{January 17, 2018} Happy hour time!

It’s been a while since we had a work happy hour, we were overdue. Guess what we did tonight!

We met at Cactus Bar & Grille, https://www.cactuschicago.com/, it’s where we have had all the project happy hours I have been to. It’s a laid back place with a bar, a bunch of wooden high top tables and corrugated metal walls. We were there for happy hour, drink and food specials.

I finished at the client site about 5pm, so I decided to walk over, it was about half a mile, and it was a nice, crisp, chilly walk through the streets of Chicago. Wow, that sounded so much like a Dickens novel, ha ha!

I got there before everyone else, so I checked in at the podium, was taken to our tables and ordered an amaretto on the rocks, yum! It was ‘let’s pretend to be a grownup night’! You know how crazy it got? I actually ordered another! The first was only half a glass, so I decided to go crazy! I can’t even remember the last time I had one!

With my first drink I ordered guacamole and chips. I wasn’t sure what anyone else would want, but I didn’t want to drink on an empty stomach, I was hungry and I knew people would show up eventually to help me out. Oh, later, the cauliflower bits, yum!

My co-workers showed up, some of the client team showed up and we were on! Even a co-worker who left the project eight months ago. Eight months? Where did the time go?!

It was great catching up with everyone, just seeing everyone! I haven’t been in Chicago since mid-November when I was sent into the field to do onsite support. I’ve missed seeing my co-workers and friends, I was used to seeing them at least every other week, well, at least once a month, since we went through re-training over the summer.

Happy hours and work gatherings are a great way to blow off steam, catch up with friends and co-workers, maybe make new friends or connections, talk a little shop and relax.

It was just what the doctor ordered.

Day 11

{January 16, 2018} It’s a snow day…in Denver…go figure!

Sleep in, interviews, games, movies. Sound good? Yup, to me too!

I got to A&N M’s house yesterday, after a great day on the slopes! We ordered in Chinese food, hung out, watched the end of the Saints/Vikings game and then after their daughter, AM went to sleep, we watched Scott Pilgrim vs The World, interesting. It was amazingly awful! I think I loved it!

This morning, I got to sleep in, well, 8am or so, I’m good with that. I got my laundry out of the dryer, went upstairs eventually and hung out with AM, we interviewed each other, that was fun, we asked each other about our interests, hobbies and poisonous vs venomous snakes! Then we played games, made clay shapes that we painted and then we watched Ocean’s 11 since I hadn’t seen it, they were tickled at my reaction.

Then some lunch and I headed out to the airport a little earlier than I normally would have, it had been snowing since before I got up and the streets were slick all morning. By the time I left, the roads were dry, thankfully! My only concern, was my flight going to take off? The weather is crazy in Chicago!

It was so great to be with them yesterday and today, very relaxed and enjoyable, like being with family and they are.

At the airport I went to Cantina Taqueria and Bar to get some food and had a good salad that had lettuce, jicama, which is a root vegetable, avocado, cucumbers, pepitas, cabbage with a tamarind dressing.

I got on my flight, it was simple, only left nine minutes late, took off and landed in the snowy streets of Chicago. I have a new driver that picked me up, took me to the hotel and here we are, sitting on the sofa in front of the fireplace talking to you.

Tomorrow is a new day, who knows what the weather will be like!

Day 10

{January 15, 2018} We’re fine in Hawaii, thank you for checking on us!

I probably should have blogged about this yesterday, but I was too excited to tell you about my day on the slopes!

I didn’t know what had happened back home until I got a text from ST telling me he posted something to my Facebook wall that was scary funny and could I imagine waking to something like that. I had no idea what he was talking about so I looked at my Facebook wall and there it was!

If you don’t know what happened, an emergency alert message went out to everyone with an 808 area code “Ballistic Missile threat inbound to Hawaii, seek immediate shelter. This is not a drill.” This was a little after 8am Saturday morning. Think some people were a little shocked? Scared? Panicked? Just to name a few.

About 38 minutes later, the retraction came out, it was a false alarm. More and more has come out about what happened. Apparently, it was a slip of the finger. During shift change, there are certain buttons that have to be pushed and this button was pushed by mistake. Uh oh.

There were news reports, briefings, discussions, talks, stories. Oh my! It was a mistake and the person who made the mistake wasn’t fired, this person was reassigned. And now, they are re-evaluating processes and procedures. Oh, I heard there now have to be two people to push the buttons!

I was touched, I can’t tell you how many people reached out to see how we were doing in Hawaii with what happened. Thank you everyone, we’re ok. PSM didn’t flinch, he knew it was a mistake and if you think about it, as some folks said “if this is the end, I’m going to enjoy the last few moments” and watched the sun, ocean, just enjoyed the paradise they were in.

Someone on the chairlift today said there was probably going to be a baby boom in September!

Bottom line, thank you to everyone who reached out and everyone I’ve met that asked me how things were going and how PSM was back home. This was a scare and now, the government is working on ways to right the wrong and move forward.

Day 9

{January 14, 2018} First run of the season…ahhhh

I so love Colorado! And swishing and swooshing!

For those of you not in the know, that means I went skiing for the first time this season today. I got in to Denver last night, got my skis from A&N M, hung out of a bit and then drove up to Breckenridge, CO.

I am staying at the Doubletree hotel, which is ski-in/ski-out. What that means is that you literally walk out the door, put on your skis and ski down to the chair lift and then when you’re done for the day or ready for a break, you ski down the slope, take off your skis and walk into the hotel, not too shabby, huh? I got spoiled staying at a ski-in/ski-out a few years ago and I’ve loved it ever since.

The only hard part is remembering which run takes you back to your hotel! Sometimes I have to take extra runs to figure it out!

I got up leisurely, it was nice to sleep to 8am, then I got some breakfast, back to the room to pile on the ski gear and head to the valet who had my skis. After I got my skis, I walked across the street, put on my skis and woosh.

Since this was the first good weekend for skiing and a holiday weekend, it was a bit crazy on the chair lifts. The runs weren’t too crowded, just the lines to go up were long. I think I waited almost 10 minutes each time, normally you don’t wait more than 5 or 6. They haven’t gotten a lot of snow this season so far, last night 13″, not too shabby!

I got to the top, put on some tunes and away I went! It was a beautiful, crisp, sunny day and the snow started, a light flurry. Ah…

I did a few runs, and it was a few because of the time waiting to go up. After a few hours, I went in, remember, ski to the hotel! I made a sandwiche, chilled out and then went back out, walked across the street and swoosh, swish for a few more hours, then I was done for the day.

As I said to myself “one more run and I’m done”, that trick a ski instructor gave me a few years ago, I see the run that goes by the hotel and I thought, “good deal, I’m done, let’s go”. I walked the skis to the valet and then into the hotel.

I went into the hotel, walked into the bar and saw a few minutes of the Eagles/Falcons game and ordered some brussel sprouts on the happy menu. The brussel sprouts and I headed up to the room to relax and talk to PSM

A few hours later I took a shower and then walked into town. It’s a nice 10 minute walk, the streets are covered in snow, it even started snowing while I was walking and then I joined the other folks strolling up and down Main Street Breckenridge, Colorado. The holiday lights are still up, warm and inviting and the air started to get chilly. Nice.

I went into a few shops and then I headed into my favorite pizza joint in town, it’s plant based, vegan and I love it! Piante, https://piantepizzeria.com/. I don’t know if you remember me telling you about this fabulous place. I sat at the bar, my server told me I was his first customer as a server, he usually just takes orders over the phone, he’ll be great at it.

I ordered bruschetta that had cherry tomatoes, cashew cheese and basil, yum! I then ordered the rosemary pizza that had cashew mozzarella, parmesan, truffle oil and let’s just say, y u m again!

I started talking with the chef, Wes, he remembered me from last year because we talked about the white pie which has arugula on it, which adds color, making it not a white pie!

I like the little touches; the open kitchen right on the other side of the bar, the books they have in their ‘library’ for anyone to read while they are there, bringing the check in a book, the ‘Greenbox” pizza box, where it’s perforated in four parts so that you can have your leftovers on an instant plate! It’s not a very big space, but it’s warm, inviting, friendly and cozy.

The Pats/Titans game was on and I was surrounded New Englanders, oh brother! And check out the t-shirt Wes was wearing! I talked to PSM a bit, he was at home watching and it’s cool, we’re only 3 hours apart while I’m here this weekend!

Then it was back to the hotel, relax and talk to you. Tomorrow I’m going to go out for a few runs, come back, pack up my stuff, the valet can put it in my car in the heated garage and then go back out for a few more runs, then back to A&N M’s to hang out, dinner and who knows what kind of trouble we’ll get in to!

At the moment, just loving looking out the window at the view from my room. Sigh.

Day 8

{January 13, 2018} Wow, I actually heard that!

Now, you know I have status with airlines and hotels and I use it to try to get extra fabulous on occasion, right?

The most I have ever done is ask at the front desk if there is any fabulous they can do for me and sometimes there is and sometimes there isn’t. I appreciate the times there are.

Now the airlines have been great automatically doing things, like upgrades, get my bags on the plane by the skin of their teeth.

But I have never pulled the “I’m a Diamond or Platinum whatever” to get something. The most I have ever done with that is said “I’m Diamond and I pretty much live in hotels and I want to point this out”. They try to give me points or whatever, I’m not looking for that, just to let them know someone isn’t living up to their standards.

Tonight, on my flight, I encountered ‘one of those’. The guy next to me did not like his, seat choice, apparently they didn’t recline. He said to the flight attendant, and I quote I am a 2 million mile flier and I expect…

Seriously? If he booked late like I did, these were the only seats available, at least he didn’t have to sit in the middle!

You know what I have to say… grow up!

Day 12

{January 11, 2018} Two different meals, two different friends, two great nights

Between yesterday and today, great food, great conversation, great friends. What more could you want? I have met and made some amazing friends through different jobs, you’ve heard me talk about ST, TS, JCT, RJS, they were from two different companies and now, in the last few years, you’ve heard me talk about DLP, HH, LJ, SH, LS, WIS, they are all from my current company, different projects, I have been super lucky and now I can add EDW! I know, I know, you really want faces with these name, or just names! Sorry! I knew I was going to be at one site on Wednesday so I reached out to EDW who I met at that site, and clicked with, to see if she was free for dinner, we had such a great time last week! Wednesday, I left one site and drove to meet her for dinner, on my way to my next hotel. We met Friaco’s Mexican restaurant, a place she really enjoys and as I think I’ve mentioned, you can’t get good Mexican food in Hawaii, so I’m always down for Mexican. Do you remember when SDL, Miss A and I went for Mexican food the night before we left for Mexico?! Friaco’s, https://friacosrestaurant.com/, was good. We had chips and guacamole, which I seem to crave a lot. We discussed how avocados are great, but when other people have them! I got into avocados and guacamole a few years ago and enjoy them when I go out to eat and when other people offer them to me, but when I buy one, it seems to sit there and go bad, could someone please explain this to me! Black bean soup and rice was just the thing, both cooked in water and the waitress was good, when she first brought the soup, I told her it was hot, which I had said I couldn’t do spicy, she said “how about another bowl without the pico”. Apparently when I tell people that black pepper is spicy, it does not compute! Oh well. After that, tasty, tasty, tasty! We talked travel, skiing, ski in and out places, Key West, Hawaii, work, families, food, working out, I think we covered the gamut! Yup, that sounds about right! Then, tonight, I went to meet SH at Amitabul, the Vegan Korean restaurant you may remember me telling you about last year, ha ha! that I went to with WIS. It was just as good as I remember it the last time! I like the atmosphere, it’s relaxed and comfortable and welcoming. One of the great things was that SH lives near the restaurant and orders from there all the time. Even better… she’s Korean and could explain a few things to me! As I’ve told you before, I love going to vegan restaurants because the one and only question I ever need to ask…’Is it spicy?” We had date tea, Energy pancakes, summer rolls, and we both had soup, ginormous bowls of soup with vegetables and noodles and mine had vegetable dumplings, oh my. Let’s just say, lunch tomorrow! It was a great time! We talked work, travel, family, what more could you want?! We both have some trips planned and ideas fur places to go and… we may even overlap in Hawaii! What’s are the odds?! So, good location, good food, great company, what more could you want!

Day 6

{January 11, 2018} Happy Birthday ACS!!!

January 10, 1971 was a good day. My brother-in-law was born, that’s a pretty good day, don’t ya think?!

Well, 1971 was a good year, right!? One guess who was also born in 1971! Well, there goes the secret of my age, ha ha! Yup, 1971, a good year. It’s crazy, we’re the same age for about 3 months, but for the other 9, he’s a year older.

I always call ACS my little brother, right now, he’s my older little brother, but I call him my little brother because he’s married to my little sister, that makes sense, right? In my mind it does!

I remember the first time I met him, he was quiet and nice, and if you know me, I reserved my opinion until I got to know him, he was, after all, dating my baby sister and I am a tad bit protective of her, was he good enough? Would he live up to my expectations? My hopes for my sister?

One thing I didn’t know until my sister started dating and then married ACS is that, and this shows my true lack of sports knowledge, there was was a rivalry between New York and Boston teams, specifically NY Yankees and Boston Red Sox and don’t get me started on the Giants/Patriots! [And now it’s doubled because of PSM! Oh brother!] Before they started dating, I was oblivious and happy, now, I have to step up and have some fun emphasizing the rivalry. He really is a big Boston fan and I appreciate that, I’ve been big and given him a few things that had Patriots logos, see, I can do that! My favorite was when EJS was born, dad and I got a bunch of NY Yankees baby stuff for her, it was awesome!

Since they got married, I’ve gotten to know him better. He’s a great husband, loves my sister and it shows in his words and actions, which, as you know actions speak louder than words. He’s stuck with her through a lot that has happened to them and I admire that.

He’s been an amazing dad to my two nieces, EJS and MGS, you might have heard me talk about them before…He is more than just a father, he’s their daddy and they are daddy’s girls, even though they might not think it. He loves them to ribbons and what more could I want. He coaches them in soccer, goes to all their events, throws great birthday parties with my sister and doesn’t shirk any family responsibilities and he likes to have fun with them.

To his friends and family, he’s goofy, fun, caring and involved. Some of his friends, he’s had since childhood. I always tease him when we go out near where they live that we can’t walk five feet without running into someone he knows and it’s usually someone from camp. It’s a true testament to his character.

So, there you have it, my brother-in-law, ACS, that’s him. Happy 47th birthday, I hope it’s a great one and here’s to the next 47!

Happy birthday little brother!

{January 10, 2018} Why does this not compute? My mouth is in fire!!!

I don’t know if I’ve told you before, but when it comes to spicy food, I’m a wimp!

Being on the road and vegan, sometimes it’s hard for me to find places to eat. At all. Most people have a common conception that certain nationalities are a sure bet, not so. A lot of people think ‘oh, Indian, you’ll be set!’ actually, not true. While there are some great options, but they love heavy cream, yogurt and cheese, let alone the meat, but that’s besides the point. Vegetarian, great, vegan, not so great. I digress.

Now, on the spice scale, I am a wimp. Some places listen, especially when I say ‘black pepper is spicy’, their reaction, ‘oh my!’ They thought I meant super hot stuff, no, black pepper is a good level to explain. You may think it’s just my taste buds, that are affected, but it’s more than that. I can’t process spicy food, I have gastritis and spicy food does nasty things to my system. There you go. Enough said.

So, you can see my dilemma.

Tonight, all the vegetarian or vegan options for restaurants that were near me were Indian and I do love Indian food, so that sounded lovely. When I got there, I was the only one there until a family showed up.

The waiter was great when I asked for recommendations based on telling him I was vegan. Unfortunately, my choices dwindled, but that’s alright. I found samosas, cauliflower and potato, rice, garlic naan and vegetable soup. I asked, as I went through each item was it spicy and the response was ‘how spicy would you like it?’ Not at all. No problem.

Um…Everything was very tasty, but my mouth is still on fire! It started with the samosas, oh my! Then the vegetable soup! I had to ask for sugar and when I said it was too spicy, he said “oh, maybe I’ll make another one not as spicy” What?! Now you get it?

The cauliflower and potato was quite tasty, not too spicy, whew! I’m glad there was rice, that helped! The naan was terrific! I promise, I enjoyed the entire meal, it was just a tad spicy, well, that’s an understatement! And my stomach is not too happy with me right now. Oh well, it was an experience!

Took the leftovers for lunch…will I be chancing it? Hmmm

Day 4

{January 8, 2018} Seriously?! Well, at least it traveled in style!

Remember last night when I said goodnight so I could get a few hours of sleep before I had to get up early for my flight.

Well…let’s just say 30 minutes is not enough! I could not sleep for all my trying, oh well, it happens. I got out of bed at 3:30am, out of the house by 4am and with no traffic, made it to the airport by 4:25am, got gas and then dropped off the car at Avis.

So…guess what I found in the back seat? A car seat! Seriously? Oh brother!

Well, no post office in the airport, so I guess it’s going with me! And since I have status, it went first class, nothing less for my girls accessories!

Day 3

{January 6, 2018} It’s our blogiversary! Happy FIVE years!

It is January 6, 2018, what? We’ve been friends now for five years!

It was January 6, 2012 that I decided to take my once in a while blog ‘on the road’ so to speak. I decided that I was going to blog every day and my friends, to date, I did almost that! I admit, the first three years, I was really spot on and then year four I started to miss a few days and this last year, it was spotty, I do apologize. I can only hope I entertained and amused!

Did you know I have published and you have read 1,770 posts to date, wow!

I have to tell I really do love it, even if I don’t get around to writing some nights, I still love it so much! I love sharing my life with you, not just my life, but my friends, family, babies, nieces, grandbabies, oh my, to watch them grow and share that with you!

You have stuck with me through thick and thin on this site, we’ve added new friends and family, you’ve laughed with me, supported me, gotten mad for me, jumped for joy, gotten excited and just walked through this with me hand in hand and I have only one thing to say. Thank you! Oh my yes, thank you!

January 6th is one of my new favorite days, it marks a milestone for me each year and I have no plans to stop and I hope you’ll stay with my on this journey!

Happy 5th blogiversary friends and family! Here’s to the next five!

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