Making Paczkis

Just a quick lesson in Polish....Paczki is pronounced poonch-key (don't ask me how the "n" made it into the pronunciation!)

Last Saturday, Feb. 21st while Dan & his buddies were at the Chicago Auto Show I spent the day with my mother-in-law and her mother making paczkis. We started around 9:30am and finished about 4:30pm. Yes, making these scrumptious Polish doughnuts is an all day process! It's only done once a year (but now that I know how to make them Dan is hoping to get paczkis more often).

I had a wonderful time "bonding" with Dan's grandma and felt very lucky to take part in the process. Not only did I mix, knead and cut...I also got to put the doughnuts in the deep fryer and take them out...something Dan's mom was never even allowed to do! (I let her help me though) It was a long day, but well worth it in the end! Take a look at some highlights from that day:

While we were having fun, Dan & his friends were stuck in an elevator at the Hyatt Regency!! Ask him about it next time you see him :)

Low-key weekend

Even though I've been sick all weekend Dan & I still managed to have a good time. I slept in a bit on Saturday morning & then basically loafed around 'til noon. I got another tote & box packed. Dan had to work till 3, the poor thing :( Our friends Dan & Lana picked me up around 3:30 and we met my Dan at an apartment we've decided to share when our leases are up. We'll get a 6 month lease and our rent will fall to below 1/2 what we're paying now...which will save us plenty of $$ for our Illinois move. We filled out the rental apps & put down a holding fee, so we should hear later this week if we've been approved (I don't see why we wouldn't be).

Saturday evening we went to Fast Forward (the rollerskating rink in Madison) for Lana's birthday. Dan & I both tried roller skates for a few laps & decided to switch to rollerblades. We stuck w/ the blades the rest of the evening. I think its been at least 8 years since the last time I did something like this. I have a pair of rollerblades, however I haven't managed to pull them out of the closet & dust them off yet. Maybe this summer :) After skating we all went to the Great Dane for a few drinks. I was exhausted by this point and ready to take some Nyquil and go to bed. But we hung around till 11:30 or so (late for us :).

I didn't sleep well Saturday night and woke up this morning feeling worse. I feel like I haven't been able to me more than a couple inches away from a box of kleenex all day. We went to the Cub Foods on Verona Rd. to do some grocery shopping, because they're closing the store everything was on sale. Everything had pretty much been picked through, but we were able to find a few bargains. We did the rest of our grocery shopping at Copps. Now we're home, I just cleaned out the litter box and there's laundry in the washer/dryer, so it looks like I've got plenty of things to keep me occupied until bed. I'm keeping my fingers crossed I'll be able to sleep better tonight.

Well, I hope everyone had a good weekend. For those of you up north here, I hope you took advantage of the awesome weather we had! Could winter be over already?