The Friday Five, 10/6/17: 5 things I've been up to this week

This has been a long week, between the news on Monday and then some #firstworldproblems I've been having. However, I have high hopes for the weekend, as I'm headed to D.C. to visit a friend.

Noodles & Company

What I've been up to this week:
  1. Attending a Noodles & Company tasting. On Monday, I headed over to the Macomb, MI Noodles location with three other bloggers and tasted their new and returning mac 'n cheese dishes, as well as a ton of other items on the menu. Make sure to enter my giveaway to win Noodles for a year!
  2. Setting up my Nectar queen-sized mattress. I will be doing a full review on it soon, but it's a memory-foam bed and is EXTREMELY comfortable. It also came with two memory-foam pillows, which was a nice surprise. I was proud of myself for lugging it up the stairs on my own, too—the mattress + packaging weighed 75 pounds. It's a great deal vs. a "showroom" mattress, though ... a queen bed is only $670 (normally $795).
  3. Cooking, canning, and planning. You might be surprised to hear this, but I actually do cook at home quite a bit. Last week, I tried out this One Bag Chicken Lemon and Pasta recipe, and on Tuesday, I tried a Slow Cooker Thai Peanut Chicken recipe, both from Averie Cooks. The lemon pasta was good though a bit too "lemony" for me, but I LOVED the slow cooker recipe, especially the peanut sauce. I also made Teriyaki Chicken Kabobs last week, but in my oven, as I don't have a grill; those were tasty as well. On Sunday, my boyfriend and I tried canning pickles for the first time (#hipsterstatus? ha) and I got to try one yesterday—they came out VERY tasty.
  4. Using my MoviePass. I didn't attend any screenings this week, but I did see Wind River on Wednesday night at MJR Troy. Sad movie, and a bit slow at times, but worth seeing—I'd give it 3.5/5 stars. Jeremy Renner and Elizabeth Olsen were quite good in it, too.
  5. Having phone issues. My day-to-day cell phone is the Samsung Galaxy S6, and it's getting to be elderly—I bought it in April 2015, I believe, after my Galaxy S3 decided to unexpectedly die THE DAY BEFORE I LEFT for Yelp Spring Break that year. On Wednesday night, I tried doing an update on my S6, and it got stuck in reboot mode ... I was about to write it off as a goner, but Thursday morning it is working again. (and, of course these issues have to occur one day before I leave for another trip!)
Nectar bed
Full Nectar bed review coming soon!

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