Weekending - April 17, 2015

This has been one of the most laid back weekends I've had in years -- and it was much needed!  After several late nights of activity last week, I was looking forward to a relaxing weekend.  It ended up being a great mix of fun and tranquility.

Late Friday afternoon I got a text from my friend Sherri asking if I wanted to grab a drink after work.  Well, heck yes I did!  We swung by Houlihan's and had a chance to catch up with each other.  After that, we grabbed Eric and headed to Hemingway's Zen Garden - a local wine bar.  Brad Noe was entertaining the crowd with some great music from the Stones, Pearl Jam, Neil Young just to name a few.  Fun times!

Saturday Eric and I decided to work on our garden.  Our garden space is nothing like the gardens we had when we were growing up.  Both our parents have had very large gardens with tons of different vegetables.  We have a postage-stamp size spot and only grow a few things.  Last year I decided I wanted to box our space in to make the edges more pronounced.  Eric did a great job getting this project started.  We have a ways to go before it's finished, but starting is the hardest part right?!?

We needed to take a break midday to watch the Blues play - thank goodness they won!  Congratulations to Vladimir Taraseno on your hat trick! As a matter of fact, it was a great sports day for St. Louis with wins in baseball and hockey.

Sunday we woke to raindrops.  We managed to sneak in a walk between showers.  Upon getting home we decided to sit on the porch and do some reading.  Since that's the highlight of my day, let me share some facts I read about while enjoying my tea on the porch.

So, I'm a magazine addict.  I love all magazines and have the hardest time throwing them away.  Which leads to my magazine hoarding problem, but that's a post for another day.  Today I want to share what I read in my Every Day with Rachael Ray.  No, it's not a recipe.  It's information about how to save on air travel.  With people planning their summer vacations, I thought it might be interesting info for some of you.

Here's some of my favorite facts straight out of the May edition:

~  Time your searches right.  "Domestic fares are updated at 10 am, 1 pm, 4 pm and 8 pm," says Matthew Ma, co-founder of theflightdeal.com.  So if you've been searching for a flight and the prices have been steeper than you'd like, check back a few minutes after the update hours and you may find a rate drop.

~  Exploit a loophole.  Tickets sold in the U.S. must have a 24-hour cancellation window (if the reservation is made more than seven day out), and this magical sliver of time is when you can alter your ticket sans ugly fees.  So if your flight suddenly becomes available for less, contact the airline to be credited for the difference in price.  Or use the "airline refunds" function on the flight-tracking site yapta.com.

~  Lock in your price.  Commitment-phobe?  Use optionsaway.com to hold a great fare for you to three weeks.  Holding fees vary by flight and the number of holds on it, but most are between $6 and $24.

Those are my favorite.  For more, check out the full article in the magazine.  Click HERE if you're interested in a subscription.  A one-year subscription is $5.24 (10 issues).  Can't really beat that!

Speaking of favorite things, Saturday I was so excited to see my lilacs blooming!  This bush was started off of a huge lilac bush from my parents yard.  I love the fact it's part of the lilac bush I grew up smelling.  Hopefully it will continue to grow and produce more and more blooms each year.

Remember the poem my friend Linda wrote and I blogged about HERE?  Well, guess what -- she won third place in the contest it was entered into.  CONGRATULATIONS, Linda!!  So proud of your dedication to your students and your career.

We're wrapping up the weekend by watching the Cardinals on Sunday Night Baseball.  Have a great Monday!!  We're expected some cooler weather this week -- hope Spring returns soon.

Check out what others were up to this weekend.

Champagne and Suburbs

B Loved Boston

I Should Be Mopping the Floor

Life of Meg

More Pieces of Me
Bella and the City
Oak and Oats
A Cute Angle
The Quinntessential Mommy