The Friday Five, 1/15/21: 5 things I've been up to this week

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
Adam's PB Cup Fudge Ripple, from The Cheesecake Factory

What I've been up to this week:
  1. 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. 
  2. 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; I had a free birthday sandwich, and they had also sent me a "Merry Christmas" sandwich. On Saturday, I got my free Sweetwater's drink and also P.F. Chang's lettuce wraps; on Sunday, I got my free meal at Mr. Kabob Xpress (Troy) and my boyfriend got us HopCat for dinner (free birthday sandwich—their grilled cheese is my absolute favorite, so that was a treat). On Tuesday, we got B-dubs for dinner (6 free bday wings, and also a random 6 free wings that they gave me), and although it's good, Detroit Wing Co. (DWC) is just as good (and like half the price). Tonight I have $5 off to use at DWC for my birthday so was thinking of doing that.
  3. Cooking. I treated myself to HelloFresh this week, and we made a chicken tikka masala meal yesterday—not QUITE as good as Main St. Kitchen (the Clawson Indian restaurant I like), but a step up from the Trader Joe's frozen Indian meals I usually make. I got Dinnerly last week, and I will be getting Dinnerly next week, too. 
  4. Watching movies. I watched Herself on Amazon Prime last weekend, and it was pretty good; I'd give it maybe 3.5/5 or 4/5 stars. Last night, we saw a virtual screening of Promising Young Woman, and it was fantastic ... probably 4.5/5 stars from me. We almost DIDN'T get to see it—the way virtual screenings work, they send you a link for the "waiting room" an hour beforehand (6pm, usually) and then apparently you have to click "start movie" EXACTLY at 7pm ... I thought we had a few minutes grace time, so I clicked at 7:05pm, and got a message that said something like "sorry, the screening has already started." Foiled! However, there were a few 7pm *CST* screenings that night too, aka 8pm EST, and I was able to grab tickets online for it—very glad I did, as the movie was excellent. Highly recommend. 
  5. Watching new TV shows. Not new to me, but Servant season 2 is out today, at least the first three episodes, on AppleTV—check out my season 2 review here—and Search Party is back on HBO Max with three new episodes, so I'm hoping to watch that later. My parents and I also tried Miranda, on Hulu, which is what the new Call Me Kat is based on, and that was HILARIOUS ... so much better than Kat, although I love the cast of Kat, so I'm going to give it one or two more episodes. Oddly, Miranda Hart (the lead in Miranda) is one of the writers on Kat, so maybe it will get better. 
HelloFresh Chicken Tikka Masala, with Trader Joe's garlic naan
HelloFresh Chicken Tikka Masala, with TJ's garlic naan


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