Potato soup

So, today, I made Easy Potato Soup. It did not turn out well. I don't know if I did something wrong or it just wasn't a good recipe, but it was pretty bland. That's okay though..I'll give it a shot another time and make some adjustments that will hopefully improve it.

Other events of the weekend included doing Hot Yoga on Friday, seeing "Up in the Air", watching the Jets game and hanging out with some friends, and running 9.5 miles. All in all, it was a really fantastic weekend.

I really, really enjoyed "Up in the Air". It's definitely a true testament to today's economic climate, and, all George-Clooney-loving-bias aside, George was so very good in his role. I can see how it could possibly be seen as being a bit depressing, but I think the message I got from it was pretty meaningful. What I gleaned was its not about how many people you surround yourself with if those people mean absolutely nothing to you; its the quality of the people you include in your life.

Also in the world of movies, I bought "In Bruges" and "Inglourious Basterds" with a gift card from Christmas (thanks, Steph and Taylor!). I watched the majority of "In Bruges" about a year and a half ago, but was never able to finish it. The dialogue is so unbelievably sharp, witty, and quick it blows me away. I strive to be that way, for reals. "Inglourious Basterds" became one of my all-time favorite movies the second I saw the trailer. Wow, I love this movie. I saw it twice in the theater, and it was the movie my family and I watched on Christmas Eve (replacing such classics as "A Muppet's Christmas Carol", "A Christmas Story", and "It's a Wonderful Life"). We have an odd sense of value, my family. I seriously don't know how that movie isn't considered the greatest movie ever made. So good!

But, I have to say, the best thing about the weekend was what happened in Goldsboro, NC at 1:30 pm on Friday: Captain Taylor Francis, my fabulous brother in law, returned from a 4.5 month deployment to Afghanistan. Taylor left at the end of August, when his son (he and my sister's first child) was just shy of three months old. Edward turned seven months old two days before his daddy came home, so Taylor has had to watch him grow via the internet and pictures. Thankfully, Taylor is in the Air Force, so his deployments are shorter, and the amount of time between them are 16 months. So, Edward, his mommy (my sister Stephanie) and their dog, Logan, have their soldier home! I cannot even begin to describe how happy I am for them that they are all back together, and how much more whole the family already feels, in just the short amount of time he's been back. Welcome home, bro..we missed you so.

To wrap up: potato soup - not good; movies watched this weekend - very good; brother in law being home finally - fantastic!; and, lastly, hot yoga?? ridiculously flippin hot. Wow.

On the docket for cooking next weekend will be something with a little more staying power, and possibly the ability to freeze half of it. I'm making Mom's Stew Beef tomorrow night though, which will hopefully make up for the lack of goodness produced with the potato soup!