All posts by hannahviolin

I am a violinist. I also enjoy running, working out, reading, and hanging with my friends and cat.
Random thoughts

Moving is a pain

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We moved.  It’s done. 

And I’m exhausted from moving yesterday then spending the rest of the day unpacking, then waking up and spending all day today unpacking as well.  We got our internet and cable hooked up and spent most of the day waiting for a couch to be delivered…that we finally realized was scheduled to be delivered on Friday instead.  Oops.  I guess we’ll have to stay close to home on Friday.

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My parents came through and helped out a ton.  Points for local readers who recognize where this picture was taken!

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The cat did not enjoy being moved.  I took her to the new place the morning of the move and she was not happy with me.  Finally today she started really exploring the downstairs rather than hiding in a closet.  She seems to be adjusting well and I’m sure in a day she will consider it home and refuse to go anywhere else.

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The truck, parked behind a tree.  It was really hot.  Luckily we had hired people to do the actual moving so we just got to stay inside and chat during the move.

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Stuff in the new house, starting to fill up!

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Post move, celebratory diet coke.  Name this restaurant for bonus points!

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Chris was exhausted.  He did more than I did so he got a beer.  Also I am watching my weight as you know 😉

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And the start of our unpacking.  Those are some of our awesome wedding presents—our china, another set of dishes, and of course my Carolina Youth Symphony mug.  That’s just one of many cabinets we have now.

Moving is a ton of work, but the result is always so much fun.  I’ll write more later I’m sure.

I am accepting housewarming gifts from readers, before you ask 😉

Hopefully my Mom and Dad have made it safely to Aspen by now to visit Carrie and then they head to Boulder to visit Leslie. 

Deep Thoughts

Almost moving day

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I had to snack on this tonight because I was starving and there was nothing else in the house.  FOR REAL as we moved all the food to the new house.  Oops.  It was delicious though!  There’s still some left and I’m debating.  Chocolate, though delicious, is actually not that filling.  Who knew. 

I downloaded some instagram collage apps last night and things got crazy.  Don’t judge.  Actually.  Whatever, I no longer care.  Judge away.

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I thought about taking that a few more steps, but I grew bored.  I may try again later. 

Tomorrow is the big move.  All of our stuff is boxed up and ready to go.  I’m feeling a little bit sentimental about it being the last night in this place, but I’m very excited for the new place.  My parents rocked out and cleaned a bunch—I think we should stay longer as my fridge has never been so clean…but it is empty except for a bunch of bottled water so that is not fun. 

Yeah.  I’m exhausted.  I should be sleeping, not blogging, but you know me.  Fight sleep, continue searching for entertainment.

Next time I’ll see you it’ll be from the new house!

Random thoughts

Weekend so far

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This is packing and moving week.  I may not blog as much this week because I’m not entirely sure what the internet situation will be.  As in, there MAY be a day or half a day without internet!  (cue scary, dramatic music, aka the "suspense" ring on my phone.)  I’m currently supposed to be doing some packing while waiting for my parents to arrive.  Tuesday is the official moving day—we have rented a truck and hired some movers to do the heavy lifting (I could TOTALLY do it all on my own, but you know.)

Last night we had a couple friends over for burgers.  I felt like a true underachiever as I served store-bought coleslaw and potato salad, but it just wasn’t practical to make a side on my own.  I also didn’t make anything for dessert which is really rare for me.  I felt bad, but I hope my friends didn’t mind.  They brought homemade sides and desserts that were delicious.

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And this guy fell asleep on our table, in his car seat carrier.  I told Chris if he was like that all the time we’d need to see about getting one of our own, but it turns out that’s not all they do, so we are reconsidering. 

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He was pretty cute the night before too.  Though I think he makes my arms look fat, so I might need to start holding larger babies for a better contrast.

Probably best to avoid him for a few weeks.  Or remember how shortly after this picture was taken things took a bad turn with some diaper issues.  It’s not all fun and games.

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Meanwhile the boys were doing this…

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Oh, and the big news I got last night is that my friend Vanessa got engaged!  Congratulations to her and Russell!!  It’s a love weekend—my friends Adrianne (of Chamber Project St Louis) and Derek got engaged a couple of days ago (to each other, to clarify.)

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Vanessa: Since she’s not a string player she can wear her ring on the left hand.  And eat ice cream.

Sorry for the totally random blog post, but that’s how it’s going right now.  It’s hard to be focused when your entire life is currently packed up in boxes!  Plus, who am I kidding, I’m always random!

Food

Food Truck Friday

Friday night Chris and I went to "Food Truck Friday" with our friends Jon, Laura, and Benjamin.  The event is sponsored by Sauce Magazine and takes place in Tower Grove Park every second Friday in the warmer months, and I finally had off teaching for the night!  Basically a bunch of food trucks come and park and you can create your own picnic.  We weren’t sure quite what to expect but we had heard it got busy very quickly the previous month so we went early.

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You can see some food trucks here—Chris didn’t even know what a food truck was before going to the event.  Basically our conversation went like this:  Hey, honey, do you want to go to Food Truck Friday with our friends?  Sure, what’s that?  It’s an event where a lot of food trucks gather around in Tower Grove Park and you try a bunch of different food.  Okay, what’s a food truck?

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Once we got to the right area of the park we decided our best bet was to lay down our blankets and then each person go to a different truck to collect food for the group.  I had been told by several people that Seoul Taco was amazing and the best, and they had a really long line, so I got in that line.  (I learned that while cruising—I see a line, I get in it!).  Chris and Jon headed off in search of other great options.

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I ordered a bunch of tacos—if you couldn’t guess from the name, they serve Korean BBQ style tacos.  I ordered steak, pork, and tofu.

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They were grilling the meat right there.  Easier than doing it yourself at a Korean BBQ restaurant! Anyway, though the line was long it moved quickly.  We were all texting back and forth about what people wanted to try and what to drink.  There were several local breweries that had set up shop as well.

Finally we all met back at the blankets with the food loot!

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Tacos, the silver foil are different kinds of sausages sandwiches from the Sausage Syndicate, and those deep fried things are Jambalaya balls from Completely Sauced.  There was also a quinoa salad and a sweet potato falafel from Lulu’s. 

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We didn’t find anything appropriate for this one so he just lay there being useless and we tried not to spill our food on him.

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Jon ate the sausage sandwich very dramatically.

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Ben refused to look at the camera.

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I look very wrinkly in this picture.  Maybe it’s because I instagrammed it?

Anyway, after the first round, we decided to send Laura and Jon back for a bit more food.

Chris decided he needed to feed Ben and then Ben fell asleep.

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Don’t say anything.  I know what you are thinking.

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Sushi from the Chop Shop and a sandwich that is unpictured and I can’t remember where it was from—it was a bruschetta type sandwich with a balsamic glaze and was delicious!  From a google search it seems like it was from The Cheese Shack.

This was a fairly "green" event.  After we were done eating we piled up our "trash" and took it to one of the waste centers, where volunteers sorted it into recyclables, compostable materials and other things.  I was surprised by how little was actually trash!

Anyway, we had a great time trying various foods, and really enjoyed our dinner.  The weather was nice (in the shade) and since we got there before 5 pm, it was easy enough to try a bunch of different trucks.  If our schedules permitted, we all agreed we would definitely go back! 

Here’s some twitter handles for the various trucks I mentioned if you are interested:

Chop Shop
Follow this truck @ChopShopSTL

The Sausage Syndicate
Follow this truck @SyndicateSTL

Lulu’s Local Eatery
Follow this truck @LulusFoodTruck

Seoul Taco
Follow this truck @SeoulTaco

The Cheese Shack
Follow this truck @cheeseshack_stl

Completely Sauced
Follow this truck @saucedonwheels

Have you been to a food truck event before or eaten from a food truck?  Chris said he was picturing hot dog vendors and such so he was especially surprised at the quality and selection of food. 

Product Reviews

Vega Nutritional Shake Review

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About two weeks ago I blogged about Vega Protein Powder. I was given some free samples by the company of their all-in-one nutritional shake powder in addition to being given a link so that my readers could get their own samples.

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I hadn’t tried any yet at that point, but I’m new to this whole reviewing products thing and I was feeling pressure from the company to provide that link to my readers for free samples.  And I didn’t die, so if the link is still good, hey, knock yourself out.  I’m just going to say that Vega and I did not get along.  I tried it two or three different times, a couple of different flavors.  Chocolate was okay flavored as was vanilla flavored.  The berry flavor was pretty disgusting. 

The real problem however, was the, shall we say, digestive issues.  The first time I thought it was just me, as I’m a bit lactose intolerant and sometimes that sneaks up on me.  The second time I was still not convinced of the cause of the problem, but by the third day of having to visit the bathroom approximately 3 extra times before finally being able to get on with my day, I knew the only commonality was the powder.  That could be just me, of course (I am simply sharing MY experience here, and I am not a doctor), but since I was ambivalent about the flavor as well…it just doesn’t make sense for me as a product. 

I was hesitant to write this review at all, because I am not usually one to discuss my intestines and whatnot on the blog.  Of course I talk about that sort of thing with my friends all the time (not really, but occasionally of course) but I’m not used to blathering it all over the internet, BUT if you are to trust anything I say, then I need to be honest and occasionally give a bad or less than positive review of a product.  And I wanted to like the product, I really did.  With a vegan sister (I have two sisters, Leslie and my vegan sister Carrie, which is absolutely how everybody should refer to her) I wanted to like a vegan product.  And like I said, maybe it will work for you! (Follow this link to get a free sample.)  For now though, I’ll stick to my usual animal product filled protein powder.

Cat, Deep Thoughts

Are you a cow?

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I was at Target the other day and I figured I’d just poke through the children’s books. 

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Am I a cow?  How would I know?  Or even more importantly, how would I NOT know?  Do cows know that they are cows?

So I bought the book.  For Benjamin.  (Even though he totally can’t read yet.) (I haven’t given it to him yet, and I’m hoping he doesn’t already have it.)

But then I read it.  Spoiler alert follows.

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Oh.  I guess I’m not a cow.  *has a sad*

Yesterday I had my last day teaching at the school until the fall semester starts (which is in less than four weeks!).

This is a sign I shouldn’t mindlessly snack.

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Yes, I cleaned it up. 

And then I got a little artsy with Instagram.  What do you think?

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Can you tell what that second picture is?  (Hahaha.)