Yes/No Detroit

Did not do very much this week, except try to get vaccine for people in Michigan and Massachusetts (my uncle, plus a friend's dad), so this week's Friday Five might be a little sparse. (related: if you're 65+ and looking for a Michigan or Ohio vaccine, email me! I've been lucky with the Rite-Aid site.) Vday meal: steak with creamy mushroom sauce, Brussels with balsamic & parmesan What I've been up to this week: Eating good food . After I cooked the Coq Au Vin recipe for my boyfriend last week, it was his turn to cook for me this week, and I chose filet mignon (beef tenderloin). He found a recipe online for filet mignon with a creamy mushroom sauce, and cooked the above meal for me, which was delicious ... probably one of the best meals I've had in the pandemic so far, and definitely the best steak. He paired it with a glass of Merlot (which was also used in the mushroom sauce) and some Brussels sprouts with balsamic vinegar and fresh parmesan. Pretty tasty

Not much going on this week except work stuff. I actually haven't even had any takeout, except for Sunday (Valentine's Day) when we got Buddy's Pizza, and some bubble tea at the new place in Troy, Onezo.  Bon Bon Bon Valentine's Day collection What I've been up to this week: Watching a lot of movies.  Last Friday, To All the Boys: Always and Forever  debuted on Netflix, so of course I watched that right away ... I'm a huge fan of both the Netflix series and the books  (on sale today actually, $17 for all three paperbacks! Good deal). On Saturday, my parents and I watched Judas and the Black Messiah , which was okay; great acting by Daniel Kaluuya, whom I loved in Get Out , but a bit slow for me. It's based on a true story, though, which was interesting. I also tried watching The Map of Tiny Perfect Things  on Prime and although that's normally the type of movie I like (teen romance movies), I couldn't get into it. Last night, I saw a screening of Che

This week has seemed really long, for some reason. I was trying to cut back a bit on sugar, but then three boxes of cookies (like three BOXES, with 3-5 boxes of cookies EACH, inside) showed up at my doorstep for work samples ... so much for that! They are delicious, too. I've also been working my way through my Bon Bon Bon Valentine's Day collection—each one is like a present, and also like a piece of art. Srodek's Farmer's Cheese pierogies and HUGE potato pancakes What I've been up to this week: Cooking. As you can see above, I made a Srodek's run last week, to the Sterling Heights location, and I fried up some of their Farmer's Cheese pierogies, along with their gigantic potato pancakes, for lunch one day. I had the pierogies with sour cream and the potato pancakes with applesauce, both left over from our Polish Village Cafe takeout the week before. I also had a Dinnerly box this week and I think Dinnerly last week, too, and I will have a few EveryPlate bo

*Disclosure: Elegear provided me the below product at no cost to myself, for reviewing purposes. The opinions expressed here, however, are my own. I was recently contacted by Elegear, who offered me a few products to review. I chose the Cooling Comforter , because my current comforter is about nine years old, and I was intrigued to see if it did indeed keep me cool during sleeptime.  I am the type that tends to be cold all of the time, so in the winter, I like a thick, cozy comforter. My boyfriend, whom I call "polar bear," likes to have the fan on when we sleep, and tends to burn up. So it can often be tricky to find a balance between the two; my (nine-year-old) comforter is thick, which I like, but he isn't the biggest fan of it, because of that.  We tried out the cooling comforter last night. I do sleep with regular sheets on too—I just noticed in the picture that the cooling blanket/comforter is meant to be put directly on your skin, it seems. My sheets are a dark blu

I made the mistake of not putting my car cover on last night, and then we got walloped. A kind neighbor texted me saying my boyfriend could park in another resident's carport spot, who apparently is away for the month, so I might take advantage of that myself at some point, if he's not over and we get big snow.  Free dozen Krispy Kremes for my birthday perk! What I've been up to this week: Getting the last of my birthday freebies . Most of them expired 1/31, and last Saturday I went to Krispy Kreme to get my free DOZEN doughnuts ... in past years, the birthday freebies has been one doughnut and one free coffee (and I don't drink coffee), but this year I got an email saying it was a free DOZEN doughnuts! So of course I took advantage of that, haha. I split with my boyfriend and parents. Sad news though, they got rid of my favorite doughnut, the creme-filled one—they technically still have it, but it now has a hole in the middle, and isn't the same. I also still have

*Disclosure: I received a copy of this movie for reviewing purposes. The opinions expressed here, however, are my own. Last night, my parents and I watched Let Him Go , with Kevin Costner and Diane Lane. It was released in theaters and on VOD recently. Read on to see how you can win a digital code for the movie! Official movie synopsis: Following the loss of their son, a retired sheriff and his wife leave their Montana ranch to rescue their young grandson from the clutches of a dangerous family living off the grid in the Dakotas. (courtesy: Google) ^ To say any more would spoil the plot of the movie. I will say this: this movie starts off very slowly, with the death of a retired sheriff's son (Costner in the sheriff's role), and later the son's wife remarries. The man she chooses to remarry isn't a good guy—Lane's character sees him slapping the wife and also the child around—and later he and his wife abscond with their grandson.  My parents and I actually really li

Here we are at the end of January already ... that went by fast. Today I have to bring my car in to the shop—apparently there was an axel recall, so they will do the work for free—and my parents are going to pick me up so I don't have to wait there for three hours. Then I will set the "kids" (haha) up with a movie, while I keep working.  Two-cheese veggie calzone, from Dinnerly (huge!) What I've been up to this week: Most important: getting my parents the vaccine!  This happened last Friday so now I can post about it. Beaumont has been extending random invites online to its patients who are 65+, but I learned of a "COVID hotline" number you could call. I waited on hold for 40 minutes, and was able to get appointments for my parents at Beaumont Dearborn ... I called last week, Wednesday, and they got them in on Friday! I was shocked. I asked if they were immunizing immunocompromised people (me) and/or essential workers (boyfriend) yet but as of now it's o

This week has seemed both slow and fast, for some reason, and I'm glad it's Friday.  Bulgogi Lime Pork Tenderloin with Sweet Potato/Bell Pepper Jumble, from HelloFresh What I've been up to this week: Getting more birthday freebies . A lot of them expire at the end of January, so I've been trying to use them up. Last Friday I used my $5 off at Detroit Wing Co., in Troy, and they were actually super excited I was using a birthday reward, which was fun. Yesterday I redeemed my free small pizza from Green Lantern, over on Rochester Rd. in Royal Oak—I always forget that one is there because their sit-down restaurant (one of a few, now) is in Madison Heights. What's interesting about that one is that this was my first year getting that freebie, and when you go to their site to sign up for their email list/rewards club, there's no spot to input your birthday ... so I have no idea how that happened, but I'll take it! And later today I'm stopping by Grand Travers

The scale is not happy with me today, but I've been eating a lot of delicious takeout because it's my birthday week ... I plan on doing zumba today and Sunday, though, and I usually have been doing it 3-4x per week.  Adam's PB Cup Fudge Ripple, from The Cheesecake Factory What I've been up to this week: Celebrating my birthday / enjoying birthday freebies . My 34th birthday was on Wednesday, and I took the day off work and had Cheesecake Factory takeout with my parents. This is the first year in four years that I haven't been traveling for it—in 2018, I went to Disney World and Universal with my friend Sarah; in 2019, we went to NYC; and last year, my boyfriend and I went to Vegas, which is the last time I was on a plane. I still had a fun day this year even though it was definitely a quieter celebration.  Getting takeout . A lot of my takeout has been freebies, and unfortunately the scale is reflecting it. Last Friday, my boyfriend and I got Mission BBQ sandwiches;

*Note: At the time of this review, only 7 of the 10 episodes were available for press. I feel like AppleTV+ has some of the best TV shows around, yet no one ever talks about them. Fortunately, I received media access to AppleTV+ recently, and I noticed over my Christmas break that both Dickinson  season 2 and Servant  season 2 were up on the press app. Goodbye, productivity! Servant  season 1 was probably one of the most unique shows I had seen in a long time,  and the season debuted in late November 2019. M. Night Shyamalan is one of the producers, so it wasn't surprising that the series was eerie and crazy.  The S1 ending left me with a TON of questions, so I was super excited to see that season 2 was available to me on the press app! At the time of this review, I have watched 7 of the 10 episodes available—because of the pandemic, AppleTV+ was finishing up the last three episodes. Which is good, because episode 7 left me with even more questions ... at first I thought there wer

I guess I wished for too much in last week's post ... I'm revising it to be: "The only thing I'm asking of 2021 is that we have no more government coups." Too much? No? Steak and parmesan salad, from Dinnerly What I've been up to this week: Taking a deep-dive into MAFS spin-offs.  MAFS, or Married At First Sight , has basically been my quarantine binge. I've been catching up on the old seasons on Hulu in-between the new seasons, but I just realized there are like 5+ spin-offs ... I watched MAFS: Happily Ever After?  which followed three of the former couples who all were pregnant at the time, and I watched a few episodes of Jamie and Doug Plus One  which followed Jamie Otis (MAFS season 1) and her husband Doug when they had just had their first baby (I follow her on Instagram and now she has another baby). However, the one that has hooked me the most so far is MAFS: Second Chances , which follows 1 man and 1 woman from season 3 whose marriages didn't

Happy New Year! The only thing I'm asking of 2021 is that it is better than 2020, and considering 2020 was a dumpster fire of a year, I really don't think that's asking too much.  Pierogies from Srodek's, Sterling Heights What I've been up to this week: Doing some grocery shopping.  I've been trying to keep busy since I'm off work this week, so I've been doing things I haven't done in a while or have wanted to do. Example: On Monday, I went to Kung Fu Tea to get bubble tea (not technically groceries, I know), and I actually went IN to Target to do some returns; I also went into Kroger since I had a gift card to use. On Tuesday, I went to Srodek's in Sterling Heights (on Mound Rd.) to buy some pierogies. I bought the two pictured above, which FYI come frozen, as well as some kolaczki (really delicious raspberry cookies/pastries) and some other things. On Wednesday, I went to Whole Foods for an Amazon return, but I also had some coupons for vegan h

Merry Christmas! I think this might be the first Christmas Day edition of the Friday Five. I feel like I didn't do much this week, but looking through my Google Photos I did, although most things were virtual, of course.  Chicago deep-dish pizza from Uncle Andy's Pizza, Clawson What I've been up to this week: Yelp Cookie Exchange event.  It's a Yelp Detroit tradition to do a cookie exchange—in the past, I went to one at a bowling alley in Ferndale, and another time they've had it in Detroit, but obviously that wasn't happening this year. Instead, Annette (our CM, or Community Manager) hosted a virtual event where she made cookies, and Yelpers were encouraged to submit their cookie recipes to her, which she then sent to us in PDF form. They also did a partnership with Castalia and Sfumato in Detroit, and Yelpers were able to pick up a cocktail from Castalia, which was paired with a signature scent from Sfumato, which was very cool. Becki B. was able to pick up my