Back to Work...

Today is my last day of vacation. I took 10 days off from work, but only charged 2 days of vacation because of the holidays and my 9/80 schedule. I take vacation every year at that time. It's such a good deal, I can't pass it up!
I wanted to go to Vegas or visit my family up north, but didn't confirm on anything. I basically stayed at home and relaxed. I imagined this is what it feels like to be retired. I enjoyed every second of it.
I told myself that while I was off work, I would clean my house throughly, cook dinner every night, watch my diet and exercise. Hahaha.....

So, this is what I actually did...

Bertie and I went to Ikea with Steven, Krystal and Harold. I love Ikea. I want to buy everything there. And of course we had the 99 cent breakfast!
I bought some storage units to hang on my wall to hold stamp pads and my tools. It's a perfect fit and it was so inexpensive. We also bought some silly hats.

Sara and I went to Disneyland and California Adventures. We had so much fun because the park was not crowded at all and the lines for the rides were only a 5 minute wait! Sara and I decided to get something to eat, so we shared a turkey leg. Right behind us was a cat. Yes, a cat!! Just hanging out. Sara named him Jasper and we fed him some turkey. I guess Jasper got tired of us because he decided to go to the other side of the park. Everyone who saw Jasper was quite amazed that there was a cat there and Jasper didn't even care that he was at Disneyland.
Chuck and I drove up to Lake Arrowhead and then spent the day at the cabin in Green Valley Lake. There was still lots of snow up there and the lake was frozen. I tried to make a snow angel, but I'm so awkward at doing stuff like that I think I just made a snow blob.

For Valentine's Day I got a Brownie Edge Pan. I love brownies and I especially love the corners and edges. With this pan, every piece will have an edge or corner. Awesome!!

I ate every piece of Valentine's day chocolate and/or candy. And the only exercise I did was walk around Disneyland and Lake Arrowhead. I did clean up the backyard and sorted through some old paper and threw those away.

But the one thing I did manage to stick to was cook dinner and today I made some chicken that was really good. I got the recipe from the Everyday Food magazine and I had all the ingredients on hand. The family loved it. I served it with a rice pilaf and a salad.

Lemon Roasted Chicken

1 chicken cut up into about 10 pieces
6 garlic cloves, smashed
2 lemons, quartered
1 tsp. dried oregano
3 Tbls. olive oil
1 tsp salt or to taste
pepper to taste

Heat oven to 450 degrees. Squeeze lemons into a bowl and add remaining ingredients, including the quartered lemons and mix gently. Place chicken on a baking sheet, skin side up, and cook through about 25-30 minutes. Enjoy!

So even though it doesn't seem like I had a real vacation. I actually enjoyed myself only because I didn't have to go to work. I need to work on a few birthday cards as I know four people who have birthdays this week. And I am going to try (again) to start eating right...

So tomorrow, it's back to the grindstone. Being off work was fun while it lasted.

Ja Mata ne!