7 Quick Takes Friday (vol. 4)

I really need to start calling these "7 Tardy Takes," (as coined by another blogger who I unfortunately cannot remember) seeing as how it's more typical for me to post these on Saturday instead of Friday.  However, I already had a post scheduled for Friday and didn't want to clutter any feeds.  Ah well.

--- 1 ---

Sunday I made the trek down to south Louisiana for a two-night stay with one of my best friends (and MOH in our wedding), Dawn.  Staying with her in Port Allen put me in a much closer location for traveling to-and-from Gonzalez for the State Livestock Show on Monday and Tuesday.  (In case you were wondering, my 4-Her who showed dairy cows ended up with the Grand Champion Jersey, and the girl who showed goats is second in line for the Goat Educational Award Trip - yah!)

Us, circa October 2010.

--- 2 ---

My visits with Dawn are always wonderful, but there were a few perks to this visit.  One of those perks was the special treat of getting to visit Trader Joe's!  The Baton Rouge location is the only one in Louisiana and I'm officially hooked!  Of course, I purchased the favorite - cookie butter (crunchy, this time) - but I picked out a few new things to try too.  One of these days, I'm going to pack a cooler and try some of their fresh stuff!

What could be better than cookie butter cookies??

--- 3 ---

Also on this trip, Dawn was able to coordinate a late lunch with one of my college roommates (and her childhood best friend), Annie.  Annie and her husband, R.J., were married about a month before Alex and I, and they welcomed their daughter, Lydia Ann in November 2013.  Despite our best efforts, Annie and I hadn't seen one another since her wedding (Nov. 2012), and obviously I hadn't gotten a chance to meet Lydia yet.  It was nice to finally catch up, and I have to say that being a mommy looks great on Annie.  :)

--- 4 ---

I was a little worried about making the trek back north on Tuesday due to the Winter Storm Warnings and closures of schools/state offices/public buildings in the entire region.  The storm was delayed from original projections and the winter precipitation didn't end up starting until about 6 pm that evening (thankfully I made it back around 4:30 pm).  I stayed home from work on Wednesday since the roads were covered in ice and there were lots of reported accidents in the area.  If I'd stayed in Baton Rouge an extra day, there is no way I would have made it back until Thursday.  Alex and I were able to sleep in for a few extra days, and we even got to watch some of the Olympics as they played live in the mornings.  It was a nice treat.

--- 5 ---

Another treat this week was not one but two king cakes!  I purchased an authentic king cake (no such thing in north Louisiana) from Randazzo's in LaPlace when we were down there for lunch with Annie and Lydia.  It was overwhelming to choose which one, but they had taste tests set out and I settled on the pecan cream cheese.  Mmm.  Little did I know, yesterday we woke up to a fresh Meche's king cake at our front door courtesy of my mother.  It may or may not be the plan to share the wealth with others... ;-)

--- 6 ---

While I was out and about dropping things off at schools yesterday, I was flabbergasted by the amount of stuff being delivered to kids for Valentine's Day.   I'm talking about entire classrooms/libraries/hallways filled with gift baskets waiting to be delivered.  Does anyone else think this is totally weird?  I mean, we used to deliver small candies or valentine cards as part of fundraisers for school clubs, but gift baskets?  Our schools would have had none of that.  Especially after missing so many days of school due to the weather the last few weeks, I think this was an extremely poor use of time and resources.  Argh.

--- 7 ---

Not only was yesterday a popular holiday for couples everywhere, it was also the opening day of collegiate baseball.  In our house, this is a big deal since Alex serves as Sports Information Director (SID) for Warhawk Baseball.  I got off a little early and headed down to Monroe to bask in the glorious sunshine and support my main squeeze with his favorite opening weekend of the year.

source

And we're at it again!  Looks like the first pitch will be thrown in exactly 28 minutes...guess I better get back to my job as scoreboard operator.  Just wait, I'll be a regular member of the media relations staff yet!

-Lauren

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