Penny's Passion: Weekending - April 17, 2015

Sunday, April 19, 2015

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!

Brad Noe

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.

St. Louis Blues 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.

Every Day with Rachael Ray

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.

lilacs

lilacs

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.

24 comments:

  1. That sounds like my type of weekend! I planned to do the same but of course I had to spend my weekend catching up on work! I vowed to my family that next weekend we are not doing anything but having fun and relaxing! Your lilacs are beautiful! Hope you have a great week!!

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  2. Houlihans, is that an Irish bar? It sounds so from the name! :) I'm glad you had a much needed quiet weekend, sometimes it's good just to slow down for a bit and relax.

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  3. Sounds like heaps of fun and the only thing missing is me! Thanks for making me smile today!

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  4. Sounds like a great weekend! Love those lilacs! We also spent the weekend working in our gardens -- which sadly aren't as well-kept as I would like. But such is life with small children.

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  5. Lilacs are one of my favorite smells! My parents have bushes along the road in their front yard so whenever I smell them it makes me think of home. Sounds like you had a relaxing weekend!

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  6. I so horde magazines! I have to hide the satsh from the hubs for fear he will throw them out! I found your blog through Life of Meg. Stop by my Wednesday link up (still live) if you get a chance :)

    http://www.sydneyfashionhunter.com/

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  7. It was indeed a great stl weekend until the rain hit on Sunday. I wrote about it today, it was a fun Saturday!

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  8. Ohhh you've got lilacs! Those are my mom's favorite so I think of her when I see or smell them.
    We woke to rain here this morning and it's still going...

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  9. I have some lilacs in my garden but they aren't blooming yet, can't wait. Congratulations on the win!

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  10. First off CONGRATS to your friend on her 3rd place win. Secondly I sure wish there was some flowers blooming around here. I think the weather is too crazy right now. Yesterday I was wearing shorts in the early morning and early afternoon, but by early evening I had a sweat shirt on and sweat pants I was so cold, and it's rainy cold today. Sooooo sad! :(

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  11. Sounds like a wonderful weekend. It rained ALL weekend for us, but my son had his first swimming lesson this weekend and we went to dinner for my birthday!

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  12. My kind of weekend - a little bit of everything, a little bit of nothing. How exciting for your friend Penny and how great to have a friend like you who rejoices with her. Your garden- so envious... as you know I can't grow a thing.

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  13. Sounds like a great weekend! I love that magazine is one of my favorite ones to read!

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  14. Sounds like a great weekend indeed. I actually went on a air boat for the very first time which was pretty cool.

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  15. Thanks so much for sharing your laid back weekend. I was feeling blessed this weekend to have the chance to rest and relax myself. That's a great deal on the magazine.

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  16. Sounds like y'all had a lovely weekend :):) this weekend is going to be garden weekend for us, if weather allows ;-)

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  17. My kind of weekend, I love your lilac I don't have a garden, I'm so glad that you had a great weekend.

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  18. We had an activity this weekend, and my kids had a tons of fun. We're really love to go outside of our house every weekend, and you too you had a great weekend!

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  19. That's a really productive weekend. It must be refreshing working on your garden. I'm looking forward to reading about how the garden turns out in the future.

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  20. I had never heard of the options website. That seems like a great service I'll have to check out.

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  21. Sounds like a great weekend! Love those lilacs! We also spent the weekend working in our gardens -- which sadly aren't as well-kept as I would like. But such is life with small children!

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  22. I wish I had a green thumb! I think a garden would be so great, but I have a (strong) tendency to kill flowers and plants. Beautiful though!

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  23. Looks like a lovely weekend, I love those flowers.

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  24. Your garden looks great! Next weekend our plan is to build a box just like that! It will probably take us hours, but I'm excited!
    Thanks for linking up at MeetUp Monday! Hope to see you tomorrow!
    --Krista
    www.thequinntessentialmommy.com

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