Frenzied Friday

I didn't have to work today, which is always a good thing, but I had a to-do list a mile long. But, I was confident I could get it all done, it was just gonna be a hectic day.

During breakfast, I caught up on last night's episode of ER (very good), jumped in the shower, got ready and then I was off. First stop, DHL to pick up this little beauty

I'm waiting for Jim to come home to start her up because I don't want to do it incorrectly. But YAY! I love her and can't wait to start playing :)

After picking up the computer, the errands continued:

• UCLA to get Jim a hat for tomorrow's game
• Target to return a couple of things and pickup a new alarm clock (the numbers on ours are no longer lighting up)
• BevMo for "mermosa" ingredients for tomorrow's incredibly early tailgate
• Ralphs for groceries, lots and lots of groceries

By the time I got home it was 3pm and the dinner I was supposed to be making tonight should have already been in the slow-cooker. Crap! I've never unloaded a car and prepped a meal as quickly as I did this afternoon. The french style braised beef dish was in the slow-cooker by 4pm and is now happily simmering away filling the apartment with a lovely aroma of beef, onions and wine.

After getting dinner going, I then turned my attention to muffins. I wanted to bring a fun breakfast treat for the tailgate tomorrow as our friends are providing the rest of the food and thought pumpkin muffins would be yummy and seasonal. I used the recipe on Kate's blog, but on her recommendation, also sought out a recipe for cream-cheese filling to kick them up a notch. I stumbled upon this site and thought the recipe looked easy and tasty. Neither recipe took long to put together and the final product looks like this

I've already had one and they are so good! A huge thanks to Kate for the filling tip. :)

And the icing on this crazy day... hubs called to say that the hearing he was scheduled to be at on Monday was cancelled, which means he actually has some free time for us to hang out this weekend! I am beyond excited because while we've been to several football games since being back from vacation, we haven't really had a chance to spend time together just the two of us. He is swinging by the store as I'm typing this to pick up mixers for pre-dinner cocktails, cheese and crackers for an appetizer and pie for dessert. The rest of the night we are eating, drinking and just generally enjoying each others company. :D

And there you have it, my crazy fun Friday. And to think, the weekend has only just begun!