The Friday Five, 4/5/19: 5 things I've been up to this week

This week has seemed long, but I have a lot of fun activities planned for the weekend, so I am looking forward to those. I've been driving the 2019 Mitsubishi Outlander PHEV for the week, too (a hybrid electric vehicle), which has been interesting—check back early next week for my review.

EveryPlate Vietnamese steak bowl
Vietnamese Steak Bowl, from EveryPlate

 What I've been up to this week:
  1. Cooking. I finished up an EveryPlate box this week—HelloFresh's cheaper cousin, at $38.99/week—and I made the Vietnamese Steak Bowl, pictured above, as well as two other dishes. My favorite was the "Party Thyme" Steak (not pictured). I also received a HelloFresh box and have two more dishes to cook from that.
  2. Seeing lots of movies. I pushed my A-List membership to the max this week and saw three movies: Dumbo in 3D, Gloria Bell, and The Best of Enemies. My favorite of the three was The Best of Enemies, which I'd give 4 stars out of 5. Dumbo was a little disappointing but the little guy sure was cute, so I'd give it 3.5/5; Gloria Bell was a bit disjointed but had good acting, so I'd give it 3/5. I'm seeing Shazam in 3D tomorrow, as well. 
  3. Hanging out with friends. Last Sunday, we had the inaugural meeting of our new Book Club, at Lily's Seafood in Royal Oak. I don't like seafood but they have plenty of non-seafood options too. We will be doing Book Club once per month. On Monday, some friends and I went to Pasquale's, as they are permanently closing this Sunday, and I love their pizza. They were unfortunately OUT OF BREADSTICKS which was a great travesty (you have no idea—their breadsticks were super tasty) but the pizza was still great. 
  4. Trip planning. I haven't announced this here yet, but when I was in Chicago last week, a colleague invited me to take his place on a trip to THAILAND for work. I got it approved by my boss and I will be going at the end of May, for this trade show. I am pretty excited about it because I've never been to Asia, but I've also been reading up on the country a lot online, so that I know a bit about it before going. I'll need to get some immunizations too before I go, mostly Hep A and typhoid. 
  5. Reflexology treatment. A while back I bought a Groupon thinking it was for a back massage—imagine my surprise to realize it was more of a hand and foot massage, LOL! I learned a lot about the study of reflexology, though, and it was actually pretty interesting, though I'll admit I was disappointed it was not a back massage. I actually bought another back massage deal through Groupon later that day, and I have that scheduled for 4/15 in Rochester Hills. The reflexology treatment was definitely relaxing at least, though—you wear an eye mask to blot out distractions, and you're in propped up in a comfortable chair. You can read my Yelp review of it here, and this is the Groupon deal, if you are so inclined. 
Hello Fresh chicken teriyaki bowl with peanuts
Hello Fresh Chicken Teriyaki Bowl, with peanuts

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