Coinci-density

Happy Wordy Wednesday! Did you sign up for my stationery giveaway yet?

Strange and odd things have been happening this week. Coincidences, funny little quirks.

For example, I played my mom in Scrabble, and ended up with this:

I was walking ,leaving Coffee News Cafe, and saw a trail of pennies leading to Wet Paint.

Another day, I was running late to walk over to meet man-go-round for lunch on his break, and at the last minute put on real shoes instead of sandals. I haven’t worn “real” shoes since last spring. Then, directly in my path was this:

Finally, I was driving home from getting my car serviced today, and I heard a song on the radio. I listened to it, and then a crappy song came on, so I changed the station. Then the exact same song I had just listened to came on that station.

The song? “Play that Funky Music” (A classic). I decided to listen to it for the second time, but it got me thinking about weird coincidences, and about what we pay attention to and how it affects how we see things. To me, its sort of like how once you learn about something new, its all you hear about after that…

So I want to know- what do you make of coincidences and strange happenings? Do you read into it or think nothing of it?

See you all tomorrow for Travelin’ Thursday!

Meri

Posted in Wordy Wednesday | Tagged , , | 24 Comments

How do you like ‘dem apples?

It’s another Tasty Tuesday friends!

…but first, don’t forget to enter my giveaway if you haven’t yet!

Today’s post is all about apples. It’s high apple season still around here, and on Sunday as you may already know we went to a pumpkin patch/ apple orchard. All of this apple has had me tasting it in all kinds of ways:

Plain- a Sweet Tango, recommended by a very special gal!
Seasonal Apple Cider tea
dried in the oven

aaaaaand… a recipe! Quick Cinnamon Apple Pie Oats (A good way to use up a slightly less than fresh apple, or a delicious ripe one)

You need: A medium apple, 1/4 or 1/2 cup quick oats (depending on if its a snack or a meal) , 1 tbsp sugar/brown sugar/ sweetener, cinnamon, 1/2 graham cracker (optional) butter (optional- for if making life difficult for yourself and making stovetop version…)

  1. Dice an apple of your choice. You might want to eat a slice or two while chopping so you don’t end up with a too high apple: oats ratio
  2. Cook the apple on the stovetop or microwave until soft, adding cinnamon and a little sugar (use a bit of butter if its on the stovetop)
  3. If you’re lazy like me, add the oats and water (about a 1:3 ratio) to the bowl you already cooked the apples in, and stir.
  4. Cook oats for about 1 1/2 minutes, remove from microondas microwave and stir again.
  5. Sprinkle crumbled graham cracker on top and let sit for a couple of minutes to thicken.
  6. Enjoy, thanking me profusely for this easy peasy midnight snack worthy recipe.
Voila! bad lighting- it was a midnight snack indeed...

What is your favorite way to eat apples? Favorite apple variety? Which seasonal teas or drinks do you like?

Meri

Posted in food, produce, recipes, Tasty Tuesday | Tagged , , , , | 36 Comments

Gold Star Bonanza

Happy Monday Friends!

Did you enter my fancy giveaway yet? Go do it!

…but wait, there’s more! It’s Make my list Monday! Who’s with me? Since I have one more week before I can go back to work, this week’s rendition is called:

Meri’s final week of freedom menial tasks and crafts (a bit wordy, I know)

  • Get car fixed (the doors stopped locking, the windows won’t go down, the engine misfires when it rains… its time.)
  • Mooooore crafts (it has to do with paper flowers, contact paper, card making, and more). It’s very soothing for me when I feel lazy.
  • Girls afternoon of bonding with my mom and sisters
  • New reads (finished The Paris Wife. It was very good,but depressing I’ll admit)
  • Pick up prescription- Done! Gold star for me!
  • Writing (I polished off a personal essay and two short stories this week! Triple Gold Star!)
  • Check for mail/ packages on the hour, every hour, after last weeks Columbus Day Sales online shopping binge…
  • Try to make any sense of outlandish hospital bill/ insurance mailings. Urgghh. I might need a whiskey with that.
Finally, I’ll give you a hint as to what is on the rest of my library request list, since people have been bugging me about it  no one asked:
  • We the Animals- Justin Torres
  • Falling Together- Marisa de los Santos
  • The Red Tent- Anita Diamant
  • Upper Cut- Carrie White
  • Duty Free- Mino Mohsin
  • Bed- David Whitehouse
  • The Foreigners- Maxine Swann
  • Rules of Civility- Amor Towles
  • Bitter in the Mouth- Monique Truong
  • Ape House- Sara Gruen
  • What Alice Forgot- Liane Moriarty

Whew! What are you reading? What do you have to do this week? Are you good about getting your car fixed, if you have a car? Do you understand your freaking health insurance? Did you overspend on sales too????

Meri

Posted in books, family, lists, Make my list Monday | Tagged , , | 28 Comments

Patching things up

First off, did you enter yesterday’s Owl-mazing Giveaway yet? What? You haven’t?? Do it now!

Whew! Okay, now that you’re back, I’ll show you the beauty of Fischer’s Pumpkin Patch and Apple Orchard, in lovely Hastings, MN!

Cornfields, pumpkin patches, gourds, and apples!
Gardens, our final pumpkin, cluster of gourds, and my shadow searching for the "pump-king"

My mom, pop, sister, brother-in-law, and niece trekked out to find some perfect pumpkins, some lovely gourds (bonus points if you can find the one that looks like an acorn, in the bottom left picture!), apples for eating, fresh baked pies, and more! I skipped the hayride since my scarbelly still doesn’t like a lot of jolting… but all in all it was a lovely afternoon! A very very hot (over 80 degrees) afternoon, but beautiful!

Now should we carve that pumpkin or paint it? Or just leave it be? What did you do this weekend?

Meri

Posted in family, giveaway, nature, produce | Tagged , , | 42 Comments

Owl bet you’ll like this giveaway!

Yes, that’s right folks. The hinting is over. The giveaway I’ve been talking about is here!

It’s probably no secret that I love stationery. I love to make it, collect it, and buy it. Craft markets, paper stores, and of course the dollar sections at Michael’s or Target:

Tree notecards, pink owl list notepad, owl felt bag, and owl sticky notes

Come on! How cute is this stuff? I feel less guilty being a consumer machine when its for the good cheer of one lucky blog reader!

So of course you want to know how to enter, right? Here’s the rules:

  1. Follow my blog through google friend connect (this is mandatory, I’m greedy) and leave a comment telling what you’d write on one of the sticky notes.
  2. Follow me on Twitter (@merigoesround) for an extra entry
  3. Tell me your favorite TV show to watch on Netflix instant cue for an extra entry (I have another week at home to get through). I like crap like Ugly Betty, Mad Men, and News Radio.
That’s it! Now go ahead and enter. You don’t need to have a blog to enter, but you do need to live in the U.S.of A. (Lame rule, but I’m poor with a $5000 dollar hospital bill sitting on my desk, so sue me). I’ll pick a winner next Friday evening! Good luck, and have a stupendous weekend!
Meri
Posted in giveaway | Tagged , , , , | 67 Comments

Such Great Heights

Welcome to the first official Travelin’ Thursday over here at Meri-Goes-Round! (Okay, next week I won’t be announcing the categories every day, just bear with me). Last January I covered travel stories, ideas, recommendations, and more for a whole month. I didn’t even scratch the surface, though…

And then I came across this photo:

The Space Needle! One of the most common things to do while being a tourist is to… go to the top of a tall building, and see the view!

The Empire State Building, The Eiffel Tower, Coit Tower, The Sears Willis Tower…

Well, I’ve never been to the Willis Tower! In a few weeks I’m headed to Chicago for a couple of days. I do intend to see some views! Some of my favorite views have been from:

  • The Giralda in Seville, Spain
  • The Top of the Rock in NYC at night
  • Piestewa Peak/ Camelback Mtn in Phoenix
  •  Griffith Park in LA
  •  the Golden Gate Bridge in San Francisco
  • The Witch’s Hat Tower right here in Minneapolis.

Where have you trekked (by foot or by elevator!) to get an amazing view? Any recommendations for Chicago?

Meri

Posted in travel, Travelin' Thursday, twin cities | Tagged , , , , , , | 33 Comments

Yoga-holic

Well well well… WELLLLCOME to the first Wordy Wednesday here at Meri-Goes-Round! First things first, if things get a little too wordy for you, I’ll always have a stimulating, topic related question at the end. We’re busy people here.

Of course this isn’t the first time I’ve gotten a bit mouthy on this blog o’ mine, but its the first time it has been OFFICIAL!

My inaugural Wordy Wednesday topic is something not so controversial, but which I feel pretty strongly about.

Yoga!

I never was very interested in yoga until I got rear ended on the freeway about 5 or 6 years ago. I had symptoms of whiplash after the accident, and wanted to make sure I took care of my back and neck for the future. Enter: yoga.

Stage 1: DVDs from my local library.  Rodney Yee, Kristin McGee, Sarah Ivanhoe, and Mariel Hemingway. Before long, I had purchased a box set of DVDs and was practicing from 20-40 minutes a day.

Stage 2: fanaticism. I became “that girl” that has discovered yoga, poses all over the house all hours of the day, and starts telling strangers about the wonders of yoga.

  • no more back pain, ever
  • cleared sinuses and clearer breathing
  • increased flexibility
  • improved strength
  • mental clarity
  • better digestion

I rave so much that my sister takes up yoga, eventually going into yoga study and becoming a certified instructor. Imagine my disappointment in myself, a few years later, when I don’t practice NEARLY as much as I used to.

So today I’m taking back my passion for yoga. Since I can’t physically do many of the poses while recovering from surgery, I”ll instead share a mudra for healing and energy  that I was concentrating on this afternoon

That’s right, all together now- Thumb and ring finger meet. Inhale, Exhale, Concentrate on Meri’s recovery your health, energy, and well being.

Doesn’t that feel better? I now do declare I’m back in the yoga habit.

Do you practice yoga? Did you go through any fanatic phases with yoga or something like it? What is your favorite yoga pose or mudra?

Namaste,

Meri

Posted in Wordy Wednesday, yoga | Tagged , , , , , , , | 36 Comments

Slow “Dried”, Take it Easy…

Good Evening!

Welcome to the first ever Tasty Tuesday at Meri-Goes-Round! I’m so excited about my new daily topics, and pumped to share some of the baking projects I’ve been up to, some recipes I love, and some of my favorite foods and restaurants.

For this first Tasty Tuesday, I thought I would share a project I was working on most of the summer, inspired by a post one day by Junia at Mis Pensamientos.

Dried Fruit! While I do like fruit, if you know me well or have been reading this blog a little while, you know how much I LOVE dried fruit. and now, to find out that I don’t need a food dehydrator? That I can do it fairly simply in the oven? It’s on.

So here I give you the inaugural batch:

and then two follow up experiments!

Of these three, my favorite was the Asian Pear. The nectarines were pretty good, the banana chips got too wilty, and the plums I never got as dried as I wanted because they were so ripe I couldn’t get them very thin.

However, they all turned out very delicious, but I think the Asian Pear and the Nectarine were the tastiest of this bunch.

If you want to make some of your own, follow these rules:

  • slice the fruit as thin as possible
  • spread the fruit on parchment paper on top of a baking sheet
  • put in oven set between 175-200 degrees
  • dry for 1/2 hour to an hour, depending on thickness
  • flip fruit over
  • dry for another 1/2 hour to an hour
Enjoy! Do you like dried fruit? What is your favorite kind? 

Meri

Posted in food, produce, recipes, Tasty Tuesday | Tagged , , , | 36 Comments

R and R

Yes, friends- I’m still home. I can’t believe how long it feels like since before my surgery, and when I was going to work and running around like a chicken with my head cut off.

While I’ve been home, I’ve gotten a bit off track with my weekly lists. But since I’m feeling a bit better and getting out of the house a bit more, I’m ready to bring it back…

So what do I plan to do with all of this free time?

  • Celebrate my sister’s birthday with her and my family
this is actually tres leches cake from my nieces party yesterday, but... birthday cake is birthday cake!
  • Enjoy some more of the unseasonably warm October days
  • Announce a giveaway here on the blog
  • Frame new giveaway win:

    I won this lovely print from livylove.com - check it out!
  • Pick up “The Paris Wife” at the library for round two. This time, I think I can finish it.
  • Try out all kinds of squash

    acorn, yellow acorn, butternut, and spaghetti
  • More crafts (I’m onto paper flowers now)
  • Write, write, write!… at least one more story
  • Make it one block further down the street on my daily walks (I made it about four blocks today before turning around)
What do you all have going on this week? Probably some more exciting stuff than this… What do you do when you can’t be very active or leave the house much?

And tune in tomorrow for Tasty Tuesday!

Meri

Posted in books, family, food, Make my list Monday, nature, Uncategorized, vegetables | Tagged , , , , , | 44 Comments

Cakes of Many Colors

As I warned yesterday, today is the 1st Anniversary of this blog, Meri-Goes-Round. That means there has been one year full of lists, rants and raves, music, movies, crafts, travel, photos, and more.

Pineapple upside down cake, Gingerbread cake, Chocolate upside down cake, Red Velvet, cupcakes, mocha rum cake, Magnolia Bakery vanilla, and even Mango rice pudding... Meri knows her cakes!

Now, however, I’m ready for something a little bit different. So here’s what I have in store for this year around here!

  • Make my list Mondays: Lists for the week/ Random lists I choose
  • Tasty Tuesdays: Recipes, new foods to try, kitchen experiments
  • Wordy Wednesdays: My (mostly) uncensored thoughts about things
  • Travelin’ Thursdays: Stories from around the globe, reviews, suggestions
  • Feature Fridays: Movies, Music, TV, Products, and more
  • “Weekend Whatever”: Photos, crafts, projects, and whatever I feel like! 
I can’t wait to try things a bit differently, while still getting to go through all of my favorite topics! I’ll also be having a giveaway to celebrate in the next few days.
What is your favorite kind of cake? Do you like to make your own or get them from a fancy bakery? And do you all like champagne too, or another celebratory beverage?

Meri

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Posted in Uncategorized | 54 Comments