So Long 2020, Hello 2021! | Dinner Plus Drinks #54

SPEAKER_02 0:14

Hello everybody! Happy New Year! This is a little weird. Space-time continuum then because we are recording on New Year's Eve. Yeah, it's New Year's Eve. I don't know. We are speaking to you in a whole new year. I'm wearing a sparkly top. There's a dad joke there somewhere. Are we deleting dad jokes? Can we get rid of those in the New Year? We yeah, we can make a resolution to do this. And further than that, we started talking a little bit via text. Is it talking or talking? I think we just call it talking. And um these days. I'm so excited I love New Year's Eve. New Year's Eve is like I just have this, I go stupid insane on this is the one night of the year that I take advantage of the fact that we own a butcher shop. And I go stupid insane on the meat, I go stupid insane on the line, and I drop some money. And it just I have this like hopefulness. I'm by nature like an optimist. I'm by nature someone I love building, I love creating, I love having this faith in things are gonna be bigger and better, and I was like, I'm just so excited, it's gonna be great. I'm gonna make this awesome food, we're gonna have like my favorite wine, and Bridget goes, I don't really care about New Year's.

SPEAKER_00 1:24

Okay, to be clear, in my current age situation in life, I don't care about New Year's. In my previous life, I was all about New Year's. You own so much sparkly stuff.

SPEAKER_02 1:36

No, you own too much sparkly stuff and love champagne too much, and are like, I I I didn't get this because you're like, let's go out, let's party, let's have some sparkly stuff.

SPEAKER_01 1:46

Drink some sham stuff.

SPEAKER_00 1:47

But now I'm like worried, now what I do is like, I don't want to be on the road because there's so many dangerous. I am worried about that as well. That is what I do understand. I'm like, I don't, I don't even want to go to the grocery store. I just I want to be home. Like, yeah. I want to hold Elliot this closely. I did say to Nick, I'm like, I don't really care if I just like sit by the fireplace and like do some work. Because it's just like a day that the rest of the world stops, so I'm like, oh, I can get caught up. Okay. I will drink champagne regardless, though.

SPEAKER_02 2:14

So we are, I think listeners know we are both really planning-oriented types. Yes. But Bridget is even more planning-oriented than I am. And she has done a great job on this podcast outline. So kudos to you, Bridget. It's a skill of mine. I love this question you put on here. We decided we want to talk a little bit about New Year, looking forward. We have a little couple Christmas things, because uh, thank you for understanding our break. The um New Year's episode of Pinky Sub got huge downloads.

SPEAKER_00 2:42

Yes, you guys, and I have a gift for you that I should have given you on that episode, but I'll bring it out at the right time. Uh well, that's exciting. Uh-huh. Yeah, surprise.

SPEAKER_02 2:52

So um so you you put on here, when did you know this year was gonna be different? So am I supposed to answer first, or you should you? I mean, I asked your question myself, so it's a little weird.

SPEAKER_00 3:02

I mean, I'll answer if you want.

SPEAKER_02 3:04

Yeah, go.

SPEAKER_00 3:04

So I'm gonna okay. And I don't know, like, I I loved this question because I really was excited to hear your answer. I very distinctly remember, so Elliot's birthday is March 9th, and that was completely normal. Like, we had a bowling party, like uh it was normal and so fun. Elliot had a tantrum, but you know, okay. So, anyway, that was completely normal March 9th. Then fast forward. I'm trying to pinpoint like the day this all happened. Woo! Um, so to me, when I knew that things were different, is the day we had to cancel our St. Patrick's Day event, actually. So we had a really cool St. Patrick's Day event planned at Lake Shima Country Meets. Um, my maiden name is Gallagher, for those of you that I know. So our family's pretty Irish, we love St. Patrick's Day. Um, so I was super excited to do this event. It was like uh we had planned out the whole year, like we've talked about, and we waited, like we didn't know. We're like, no, it should be fine, actually. Like the event's outdoors, it's in this blow-up pub, but it's fine. And then like the day before, we're like, oh, it's not fine. Like, we cannot have people together, period. So I think it was March 16th for me, was the day I knew that like the world was gonna be different.

SPEAKER_02 4:10

So this is funny because my answer is actually very similar.

SPEAKER_00 4:14

I was that is what I was so curious about when I thought of this.

SPEAKER_02 4:16

So, um, as you dedicated listeners know, I'm a huge New York Times person. I listen to their podcast, the daily. I read the newspaper on my phone every day. When someone gets older, we're actually gonna like get it delivered. So she sees us like reading a newspaper. She can um but so they've been talking they talked about what's happening in Wuhan starting in January, and I'm like, my god, if the New York Times is putting this much editorial coverage on it, and they're their infectious disease reporter guy is like a genius. And he like very clearly in about a week went from like, you know, this is something we should watch, but these things happen, they pop up, and uh Michael Babaro, the host, is like, you know, he yes, he's like, very deep question. Well, but what about is this uh zoological? And the guy's like, you know, these these this it sounds bad, but it does happen. And then about a week later, he's like, I am buying hand sanitizer, I'm buying gloves, I am, you know, making sure I have all my immunizations up to date. Uh he's like asthmatic, so he's like, I'm getting all my medicine. And I was like, and this is in January, I'm like, oh shit, this is serious. That was early, man. I went to Las Vegas at the end of February for a couple days of refresh. Refresh and coming back, there are people on the plane, and I I was I love walking up and down the strip. I just love it. Like, especially early in the morning. Uh when there's not that many people out. You do Vegas in a very different way, then. And uh I love the people watching, I love all of it. And I was listening to the podcasts um from New York Times and they're talking about this, and I'm just like, man, this is so weird. It almost felt like this post-op uh you know, apocalyptic thing. And then the flight back, some guys like, do you want hands here attacked? I'm like, No. I was ahead of the curve, I'm knowing this is not a surface transmittable disease. Oh god. But it was Elliot's birthday party because we got there um a little after it started, and Elliot was having his breakdown in the parking lot. Meltdown. We removed him from his own party. Sarah and I were walking in, and we had this conversation of like, I don't know, this feels weird. Like, because I also didn't feel super great. Oh.

SPEAKER_00 6:21

So we're like Early spreader. No!

SPEAKER_02 6:24

So we were like and that was when I was like, and like given like Australia burns down, Kobe was dead, like all these things, that was we're like, should we be doing this? This is weird. So it was actually Elliot's thing, and then like I think I like right after I'm like bridge, I think we got to cancel St. Patrick's Day. I think I was ahead of you on that one.

SPEAKER_00 6:42

You were, I think. I like still had a birthday party, so I didn't even know I wouldn't remember.

SPEAKER_02 6:46

I was just like, oh, this is so sad. So yeah.

SPEAKER_00 6:49

Good times, guys. So that was fun.

SPEAKER_02 6:51

Alright, so uh we're gonna skip, we have a few more New Year's things, but let's talk about this wine. This is a Spanish sparkling wine, it is Gramona, it is kava. Um, you know I generally hate kava. Cheers. Cheers! Oh, we need to do that closer to the microphone.

SPEAKER_00 7:05

Oh, okay.

SPEAKER_02 7:06

Cheers! There we go, you guys can hear that. Um but this is good. This is my family own company, they really focus on quality, do things a little different. It's a specific place outside of Barcelona that this comes from.

SPEAKER_00 7:18

Why do you like this kava and not others, Nick?

SPEAKER_02 7:22

It's cleaner, it doesn't taste like dirt.

SPEAKER_00 7:23

Yeah. Yum, no dirt kava. Happy New Year! It is good, but I mean I'm less picking it.

SPEAKER_02 7:30

It's still only like 20 bucks. Great. For sparkling wine, 20 bucks is a pretty low bar.

SPEAKER_00 7:35

So how great did that do?

SPEAKER_02 7:36

The $9 that Segura that we picked was, um, but yeah. Got some in my fridge, man. It's also 12% alcohol, so you can just kill a bottle and be like, it is new.

SPEAKER_01 7:47

Let's go! It is New Year's, guys. New Year's Eve, so we're celebrating.

SPEAKER_00 7:51

Do you ever make resolutions? Okay, so generally no. I think they're dumb, and I think that they set your year up for failure, which like you can fight me about this, but do you agree?

SPEAKER_02 8:01

I always set something to work on as a person. I don't set like a resolution.

SPEAKER_00 8:05

I I do like things. Like, um, we did a this is hilarious and ironic.

SPEAKER_01 8:11

Last year, we did a this year, last year, since then hilariously ironic.

SPEAKER_00 8:17

So 2019 into 2020, um, my sister hosted a vision board party. And like Oh, that's right. That was really cool how she did that. It really wasn't. There was a group of friends of us, like our good friends, that had been talking about doing this forever. So she put it together, we like straight.

SPEAKER_02 8:31

Oh my god, that feels like it's five years ago.

SPEAKER_00 8:33

I know, doesn't it? And so she like full-on we cut out collage like magazine things like you used, like young girls used to do. Um, and it was so fun. And we all talked them through because like we spoke it into the universe.

SPEAKER_01 8:46

Ha ha ha ha ha. Ha ha ha ha ha.

SPEAKER_00 8:48

I gotta bet nothing happened on those vision boards. So, but it was cool. So I do things more like that, but I'm not like I will lose weight, but I am like, yes, I will try and eat less sugar.

SPEAKER_02 8:59

So I always try to have something like I want to get better at this year, and it's usually like a combination of personal and professional things. Yeah. Yeah. Um, last year it was organization that's not gone well for me. Um it did, and then it went out the window. That's it. Because like we have the new house, and that's like, you know, I'm gonna have this tremendous opportunity to get rid of a bunch of crap, which we did. We threw out a whole dumpster worth of stuff when we moved. Um but I was like, you know, I'm gonna have this opportunity to really, because I do like being organized and I do like having stuff in space, but I generally this sounds like confuse, but honestly, I'm just so busy all the time that wherever, you know, any court in a storm type of thing. Yeah. Well, I'll just like, oh, there's an open space here, I'm gonna put it, you know, and then when I need it again, I'll find it. Because I gotta move on to the next thing. So that, you know, ha ha ha ha ha. But this year I'm gonna work on um I read, I'm gonna get to this later, but it's really easy to be the hero and just do what you need to do for that moment. It's not so easy to avoid that moment of crisis and put in place structures and processes and do the work ahead of time to avoid having things not go well. Um, so my goal for 2021, um, this is a combination of like something that I feel I should do better as a person. I think getting better as a person is very important each year. Um, I don't think anybody should have a coast. I don't think you should ever say, I'm great, I don't think you should ever be happy with yourself. I think you should always be you should find ways you can improve. I'm good. So uh, you know, so my goal is really to just get better at having processes in place. And that might be something as silly as um instead of leaving my clothes on the floor at the end of the night and then putting it in the hamster in the morning.

SPEAKER_00 10:41

Hamster?

SPEAKER_02 10:42

Hamster.

SPEAKER_00 10:43

Stick it in a hamster.

SPEAKER_02 10:45

Hamster in the morning, you know, doing it at night. Um, okay.

SPEAKER_00 10:48

So this is professional and uh personal.

SPEAKER_02 10:50

Yeah, just like work on ways of creating habits and being better at that, and then setting yourself up for success because you know, you you did the ounce of prevention instead of the pound of cure.

SPEAKER_00 11:01

Okay. I I I'm gonna also not call it resolutions, but like setting goals, doing reflecting things. I don't know at what age I started doing that. I I remember again in New Year's that um my brother-in-law and his wife, so my brother-in-law, my sister-in-law, Travis and Carrie were up in Milwaukee. I was like probably 20, I don't know, in my young 20s. So I but I I like remember writing things on paper and putting it in a jar, but I don't remember how it was. Um, and now this year I've been keeping a running list in my phone where I like just keep running notes. Apple notes, you know, and so many things. Is that like a product recommendation? Yeah, it should be, because I have like 500 notes. Um, but I and it's just like stuff I want to like sit down and talk through with Tyler. Like, hey, let's tweak this thing in Alice bedtime routine. You know, things that you just like do every day, and but like, oh, we need to be better about brushing his teeth early, whatever. Like so, I have that, I have a work section, and I have a personal one, and it's just like, yeah, kind of same thing. Like, yeah, let's just like reset and get organized. So I do like kind of try and set the vision for the year, but like, come on, it doesn't last.

SPEAKER_02 12:02

I do love the a lot of years, like, I do feel like I've gotten better.

SPEAKER_00 12:07

Um we need a mid-year check-in.

SPEAKER_02 12:09

Yeah, because I think a lot of years, like this year it didn't work. Um the year before it didn't work because of some stress stuff and it was too initiative. But I've always picked like personal things. I do think it has caused me, and in conjunction with what I'm gonna recommend for my product recommendation, it has caused me to become a better person, like humble Brian. I do think I'm a better person at 33 than I am than I was at 23. And I think a lot of that is because every year I've taken the time to self-reflect. Okay. At New Year's, um, you know, every says it's for between Christmas and New Year's if you don't know what is, but like I always I love these times. You know, people want to take on Christmas lights. This is the time where I eat the cheese and the sausage by the Christmas lights. We have a fireplace now, it's great. Uh Sarah and I love to go.

SPEAKER_00 12:52

We just want to sit by the fire.

SPEAKER_02 12:53

Sarah and I like to go out to Grand Geneva and like look at the lights out there and just like enjoy the ambiance and the joy.

SPEAKER_00 13:01

Yeah, Christmas chaos is kind of over.

SPEAKER_02 13:02

Yeah, so we just really like Christmas, liturgically speaking, if you're into the church stuff, is a season after Christmas. Let's sit and enjoy Christmas is here, good spirit is here. So I like that. That's a nice way to look at it. I also really do try to take the time to be grateful in this time and send like notes to people that maybe I haven't talked to, or maybe I haven't been kind to, or whatever, and to say, you know, I I really appreciate these things about you. I think you're a really great person, and I'm so proud of you for these reasons. And I really enjoyed it. That's nice.

SPEAKER_00 13:41

I I like um Shannon did New Year's cards last year instead of Christmas. I think it was last year. Two years ago, whatever. Maybe it was two years ago. And I was like, Three years ago as you're listening. I don't know! Um, what day is it? What year is it? So, anyway, I thought I love that. You're kind of like, okay, and not just like the printed Christmas cards, which I love receiving so much, but like the holiday newsletter, but doing in the new year. Anyway, we're gonna be reflecting on all the things, including favorite New Year's pasts. I'm so excited to talk about this because as I was complaining to Nick about how I don't like New Year's, and he was like, What? I'm so surprised. I'm like, actually, that surprises me too. I should love New Year's, and then I was like, I do love New Year's, I just hate this year, and I was trying not to hate this year, it's just been like kind of shitty in December specifically. So kind of shitty? December's been terrible. So that's maybe why I'm a grump about New Year's this year. I know I should be like, oh, 2021 is great, reflecting New Start, but like You're a mean one. 20 Bridget Leach. I'm what I'm really trying not to do is be the person of like, 2021 is gonna be so great. Like, no, it's just can't be worse, probably, hopefully. Um I wouldn't say that. I know, actually. Oh god. Okay, so I thought it'd be fun to reflect on some of our favorite New Year's.

SPEAKER_01 14:57

Oh, I love that.

SPEAKER_00 14:58

I, of course, have a top five.

SPEAKER_03 15:00

Oh, Jesus.

SPEAKER_00 15:00

But I limit it to five, but all five are important for different reasons because they're all very different, they're not all very different, but they're different in some ways. Do you have any? Do you want to?

SPEAKER_02 15:10

So we always spend New Year's at my grandma's house. My cousins and I, uh, and my sister. She was there, she, you know, not basically I shouldn't say, you know. Um, and my grandma was uh very smart, and she made she like set all of her clocks forward and definitely convinced us 11 o'clock was midnight. Very smart. Uh but so we always did the disgusting cheese whiz on crackers with summer sauces and sparkling grape juice. Yeah, and she is a big Mogat David person, or was, she's dead. Uh but she was a big Mogad David person, and she would let us have a little real wine. Um, because she was a good grandma, and like for you. I don't know, like seven. And uh, yeah, just a little thumble, and like she explained it, you know, like when she was growing up in Monston, they gotta do that. Monster. Monston. Uh, you know, we'd watch all these, she had all the crappy music uh movies like on VHS, like the all the land before time. Oh, is there a New Year's movie on the VHS? You know, like all of these things, and we'd we'd watch them, and she had this huge old television, you know, like when 32 inches, like, oh my god. Oh, this is big. And it was in a wood cabinet. I do remember this. Like it was in a wood cabinet, so like we'd watch it all on there, and um, yeah, then we watched, you know, uh Dick Clark and so just like that really joyous time at my grandma's house with cousins and my sister and her dog, and um that's just yeah sister's dog? Or your grandma's dog? Grandma's dog. Oh, okay. Yeah, Abby's under she didn't have a dog right then.

SPEAKER_00 16:44

Right, right. Oh yeah, okay. So Abby was like eight.

SPEAKER_02 16:50

Uh yeah, it was just a good time. And I think the first time Sarah and I had New Year's Eve, we kind of have a tradition. Um, her and I disagree on how done steak should be. And Sarah. Um so there's a part of a tenderline and whole tender line's called the head that's um a less desirable part because it's shaped a little weird, it cooks a little bit faster than other parts.

SPEAKER_00 17:13

Sarah and I like it.

SPEAKER_02 17:15

So I'll just take a head, like I'll let somebody else take the barrel cut. Saves us a little bit of at work, a little bit of having to give someone something they're like, eh, it's fine. Because it's honestly good quality, it's a little different texture that a lot of people actually do like, but it looks weird and it gets a little more cooked. So I can get this like very specific part out of it that's like medium rare and delicious, and she can get this very specific part out of it. And we open a specific bottle of wine that is important to us, and same bottle every year. Same bottle every year. And um first time we did that, just really kind of sat um at our condo. It was my condo at the time. Um sat by the Christmas lights and um just really enjoyed each other and enjoyed watching Seacrest and um Seacrest. Who enjoys watching Seacrest? Did you okay? Sidetrack. Um you have the Disney Plus.

SPEAKER_00 18:14

Yes, of course.

SPEAKER_02 18:15

Did you see Disney had like their holiday single one thing? Yes, but I was pretty good. So Seacrest hosted and it was in Secret, like, that was so great. Like all of the Seacrest glory where he started doing the like he started doing the Botox and all the things. I'm like, Ryan, you now are being like Ryan Seacrest automaton instead of like the guy that people like.

SPEAKER_00 18:38

He's like the the robot Santa in Santa Claus 2. Yes, that's exactly what he is. I know, I did like him, but I always loved like Carson Daly. Oh Carson Daly. So, but that's your age.

SPEAKER_02 18:52

Um, okay. Okay, so you give us the top five countdown. You want me to run through the top five?

SPEAKER_00 18:55

Run, oh my god, you have a note. Oh, dude, I have all kinds of notes that I kept secret from Nick. They're not on the outline.

SPEAKER_02 19:01

Oh, I have a secret note too.

SPEAKER_00 19:02

They're on a separate Apple note. Um, okay. I think these are in order of time. Yes, I think. Um, yeah, they definitely are. Okay.

SPEAKER_02 19:10

Maybe you should have taken a note about how you were taking notes.

SPEAKER_00 19:12

I'm very bad. Like, Britney can remember the day, the year. You know, I'm like, ah, that's insane. It was like around this time that we did this. I was like approximately either 10 or 15. You know, and she's like, it was December 23rd, 1997. So anyway, I don't know that. This one specifically um was a late ad, but I keep like this year as we were discussing what we're gonna do for New Year's Eve, I have these fond memories of doing board games at my parents. So I think probably a similar thing for your grandma's and I don't remember if we set up till midnight. I don't remember any of those things.

SPEAKER_02 19:44

I just guarantee your parents tricked you.

SPEAKER_00 19:46

Right. I mean, like I hope not, I don't know, but I distinctly remember like sitting in a certain spot playing games, and I'm with my siblings and my parents, and I think um we have these family friends that would always come around um at Christmas, Matt Monica, and they would usually they live in Ohio, and I don't know where they live at the time, but they would always be in at Christmas and celebrate my dad's birthday, and they would usually celebrate New Year's birthday. Happy birthday, Sean. Play and play games with us. So anyway, that was one board gallery. Sean's listen. No, I'm gonna get into Sean's my dad, everybody. Um Sean Gallagher, he spells S-I-A-N, too. That is wrong. I'm not sure he's up on podcasts, but maybe this will be his first one. Maybe. Um, okay, board games with parents. Great, fond, lovely memory. They just go downhill from here and they're not as heartfelt and wonderful as Nick's.

SPEAKER_02 20:33

Time I puked all over myself, and Tyler saved me.

SPEAKER_00 20:36

None of these involve puking because I'm a champion. Number two. I liked to plan parties and events always. So one year I pissed all my friends off, I'm sure, and was like, we're getting dressed up. And for anyone in law enforcement listening, we were all 21, but maybe couldn't go to the bars because we weren't all 21. Okay, so we were like, me specifically, she my sister and I are very young for our class, so like we are um all of our friends were 21, and I'm like, screw you, like you can't go to the bar, or I can't go to the bars, you can't go to the bars, we're having a party. So um, we have a friend that shall remain nameless that let us use his house up here, and I was like, we are having a black and white New Year's party, and we are all dressing up. And props to my friends, man. Everyone dressed up, and every and when I'm saying dressed up, like we're wearing sequins, we're wearing heels, we're wearing suits and ties or shirt and ties, at least like above polo shirt grade dress up, okay?

SPEAKER_02 21:35

Can I just say I love homecoming where every idiot high schooler boy in the world thinks a short sleeved dress shirt? Not even a dress shirt, a button up shirt and a tie is like I'm fancy. I'm like, dude, you're better off wearing a blazer and no tie.

SPEAKER_00 21:52

Tyler and I talk about a short sleeve dress up shirt. My god. Because we okay, we oh, this is a different story. We'll get off track. Okay, so. So that one was super super awesome because it was one of my I wouldn't say first party planning adventures, but it was a big one, and we went all out. We had all the things, big party, and then like we all spent the night, um, and we woke up the next morning to just like a shit storm over the house, and we're like so anyway, that was awesome. Black and white party number two. Number three, uh, we went to a cabin up north. It was like 10 or 11 of I don't know, somewhere around 10 of us. Um, and actually, I was just looking at some cabin.

SPEAKER_02 22:27

She break COVID quarantine.

SPEAKER_00 22:28

This was like a thousand years ago. But I felt so rare, we were like, oh my god, 10 people in the cabin. Oh my god, 10 people all settled together in a small and closed cabin. So, okay, this one I actually just reached out to this same cabin like a week ago because I'm I want to go with my family of four uh to a cabin up north and just like get away. So I reached out to these people because we had such an awesome experience. Granted, with these 10 people, we were like playing beer pong inside and doing all those, but it was super fun. Like, um, we went snowmobiling, we did um oh my god, polar plunge. Um sorry, we're giggling about a work text message. Um, we did a polar plunge, which was I think my first polar plunge. Uh so that one was super great. Number four, this one might be the top of the list. I was really involved with a young professionals group when I lived in Milwaukee, and again, love to get dressed up for new year. I love, I like getting dressed up. So, like this year has been hard for me. Like wearing leggings and a sweatshirt every day is not my jam. So, this one we had the full-on party at the Milwaukee Art Museum. So, this was like you buy the call of traveling?

SPEAKER_02 23:34

Yes, in the calling. Oh, that's awesome.

SPEAKER_00 23:35

So, and I was part of the organization that put it on. Like, I had volunteered a whole time with them. All my friends, this was like honestly, probably the prime of my life. I it was the year I got engaged, it was just like I was super happy, it was super, super fun. Yeah, I know he's laughing because I should say the problem of my life is now, but No, I no, I agree with you on this.

SPEAKER_02 23:55

The problem in my life was when I was 16 in Paging, DC.

SPEAKER_00 23:58

Oh, yeah, no, mine was at the New Year's Eve party at the art museum, and we did it two years in a row, and like the second year we're like, this is it, we shouldn't do this anymore. Like we were we were too, and it was still very fun, but it was like not as good as the year before. So I had a dress on that I was black and white sequence, and like honestly, I can't imagine would anywhere near cover my butt right now. I just took it away. It um and wore it with hot pink shoes. Anyway, the best time. Okay, and then the most recent time. So, guys, these the juxtaposition here art museum party downtown Milwaukee on the lake, unlimited like gray goose level bar. Not that that's like the fanciest thing in the world, but like at the time it was pretty fancy. Great goose is good, and then my most recent happiest New Year's was last year, and we all had have fun. Oh, that was great! I live in Lake Geneva now, and we went to our friends at Henningfells, so um, you know, our friends that own Hill Valley Dairy. Um, we just like had a night in there, and it was so fun. So Nick and Sarah and Smona came, my sister, her husband, and kids came. Well, one kid at the time, and then um my Lucy was just No, they both came. Was he was she no, she wasn't pregnant. Was she? No, she wasn't pregnant yet. When was she when was when was he born? Born? Oh yeah, I guess she was yet to be pregnant. Okay, everybody. Time, what is time? Um, anyway, it was super fun. Um Josie and Ron have I think it was a cousin maybe that came and like helped watch the kids. So like we were all in the same house, but the kids were up in the playroom and they stayed up till midnight and they were so well behaved. Like, yes, we let them stay up. And it was super fun. We had like a dance party. My my phone today reminded me of that year, you know? Yeah. So anyway, that was my super favorite. Like, this is my life now. I'm not wearing function sparkly shirts, but not sequins and hot pink heels. So those are the trip down memory lane of my favorite New Year's, everybody. Alright, so that's great. It's um so fun.

SPEAKER_02 25:48

Let's get into food. Let's get a food a little bit. What was uh what was the best I wanna so you had quite the Christmas. I had quite the Christmas. Yeah. What was the best thing you had over the Christmas period? I don't know.

SPEAKER_00 26:02

Um I'm gonna No, I do know because you wrote like in some like very well, I don't know for a different reason. Here's what my notes say, and what I will tell you desserts, of course. So that's exactly what my notes say. Cover with ice cream. So again, we talk a lot on here about how food is connected. Cinnamon rolls, more cookies, all the cookies, still more cookies, brownies. Um we've talked about my grandma's sugar cookies on here, I think. How I don't make them, but they are my favorite thing once a year. And so I didn't make any, but I did get a tub of them from my mom who made them, and my sister from Washington mailed us some, and I think Shannon still has some. Um, so I did finally enjoy those, and by finally I mean like I eat a couple a day, probably. Um at this point, I just want them out of my house instead of throwing them away. I just like eat them now. Um, so that was great, but I did recently, and this was like after Christmas before we're recording, went to a store with the purpose of buying, you know, the peppermint ice cream with like the gooey candy cane chunks in it? Yes. I bought that, I buy it every year. Dumb. And it's like good, but I buy it because my grandma always had it in her freezer and it always reminds me of her, and literally I will sit down and I will think of her, and it's lovely. Like I every year I do it. That's wonderful. Yeah, so that's that's what I loved.

SPEAKER_02 27:15

Guys. What'd you eat, Nick? I made this segment beyond this episode just because I want to humble brag a little bit.

SPEAKER_03 27:22

I know what you're gonna say.

SPEAKER_02 27:24

Legitimately the best piece of meat I have cooked in my life. I know Brittany can remember the exact date of who's the server, you know, whatever. I can remember exact dishes I cooked. I can't remember like the days or anything, but I can like remember all of the positives and negatives of dishes I've cooked. You guys are crazy. There is a rack of ribs that stood up to this Christmas dish, but wasn't as good. There was a brisket, the Labor Day brisket.

SPEAKER_00 27:52

Oh yeah. Oh, that was good.

SPEAKER_02 27:53

That was very good. And there were two ribeyes that I cooked and four pork chops that have stood up to the level of this, but were not as good. It's really weird. This I did a whole beef tenderloin for Christmas, and it was easily the best piece of meat I have ever cooked. Why? Why was it so much better? Okay, so my mom tell us my mom pulled what was a prime tenderloin, uh, and she was gonna cook it. And uh, no offense, mom, uh you hammer meat often. Uh and you're aware of it. That's how I like my meat. Her idea of how she was gonna cook this thing was not as cool as what I had in mind, so I took it and I cooked it. I sous-v'ed it at 115 degrees for an hour and a half. Now, the problem a lot of people have when they sous-vie cook stuff is they think you can just stay at the temperature forever. That's wrong. Starts messing with the texture. So as soon as it hits temp, you have to pull it. You know, we like to tell people, oh no, it's great, you just stay at home at that temperature. But it starts screwing with the texture, especially with something like tenderloin that's just a textural treat. Pull it at 115.

SPEAKER_00 28:59

Did you just say textural treat? Yeah. Oh, that's a great description.

unknown 29:02

Okay.

SPEAKER_02 29:03

Tenderloin doesn't have a lot of flavor. It's more the texture and like the overall ambiance. That's delicious.

SPEAKER_00 29:08

Meat texture.

SPEAKER_02 29:12

And then I took 150 degree, rubbed it with butter. I made a spice rub that is the culmination of a lot of things I've learned this year. I worked really hard on my seasoning game and not just relying on salt like a white dude to flavor my food. But like, how can we build flavor? How we can bring in, you know, every element of flavor to each dish we do. You know, making sure there's always a little sweetness, always a little bit of spice, and then bouncing off with savoriness, salt, um, just really making sure I build balanced things and bringing in some ingredients like cere and salmon spice that are not necessarily things you think of, um, but are this wonderful combination of things that bring in an earthiness and a savoriness without having to use MSG. Or soy sauce, mid-game. So uh I I I seasoned it like beautifully with this. Uh my oven air fries, it's a huge air fryer. I air fried it at 500 degrees, still all whole, still all intact, for eight minutes until the butter started burning a little bit. The spices got toasted because there were some aromatic spices in there. Wow. And then pulled it out, let it sit, sliced it up, sandwich slices. And my god, if it wasn't the best thing I've ever. Wait, did Sarah like it? Oh, Sarah loved it. And I did, so for sandwich, so we did sandwiches on rolls. I made a mustard cream sauce. Uh mustard. Um, Dijon sour cream, chives, um, brandy, de glace grant brandy, uh, a few other little things, salt, pepper, garlic, onion, and then caramelized onions. Oh, god. And it was the best.

SPEAKER_00 31:02

Did you say you're making a tenderline tonight?

SPEAKER_02 31:04

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 31:04

Is this the same thing you're making?

SPEAKER_02 31:05

I'm not gonna make the cream. Can't replicate it.

SPEAKER_00 31:08

Can't replicate it.

SPEAKER_02 31:08

You know, but like I'll probably I I might smoke it. I don't know, because like I I have this weird tick about me where like if I drive to daycare, there's two ways you can get there. You can go down the back roads or you can go the highway.

SPEAKER_03 31:19

Yes.

SPEAKER_02 31:19

I will drive down the back roads the way there and the highway the way back. I just have this weird thing about I don't like doing the same thing twice in a row. That's fair. So you're not gonna create okay, fair. So, but oh my god, people, I I almost posted this on my what knit cooked account, but I was like, this is so douchey. I mean, so like, hey, because it's like my way of like telling people like, hey, if you like what I cook, here's how you can do it at home. There's no fing way you're doing this at home.

SPEAKER_01 31:44

Why?

SPEAKER_02 31:45

Because you don't have an air fryer at the end of the day. Most people don't have bags this big that they can sue me stuff in. Most people don't have an air fryer that can hit 500 degrees. Most people don't have serum.

SPEAKER_00 31:55

Yeah, like yeah, you're a jerk. Yeah. Well, that's almost as cool as my peppermint ice cream.

SPEAKER_02 32:02

But like, Bridget, oh. And then I served it on my grandma's little serving plate.

SPEAKER_00 32:06

Yeah, that's the that's the best part, you guys. This is like a pewter. Yeah. Is it pewter? Like a pewter cow. Okay, so that's obviously the best part. It's hilarious. Serving dishes. My sister has a potato sugar. You laughed at me the first time, and now you love it too. I mean, it's still funny. But you love all the kitsch. I do. Yeah. I want a cow to serve my beef on as well. I don't, I don't. Okay, guys, so Christmas 2021 ideas.

SPEAKER_02 32:32

I have a note about stuff I should get people for Christmas.

SPEAKER_00 32:34

Cuter cow. So am I. For bridges. Um. I'm off track here. Normally we share a news story. We're gonna do that. But what we're gonna do, we're gonna talk to you about some of the happiest news stories from 2020. Because we all can reflect on how crappy it was, but instead, we're not going to. And I think that we both probably put a list story here. Is there's a list? Yeah. Yeah, mine's a list too. Um, but I before, like, I will post the link to my list. Me too. Um, but I'm gonna highlight my favorite thing from the list when when I was kind of looking back on the year and like, what are some of my favorite things? The um SpaceX launch was my like one of my favorite things. We were all over that. Yeah, it and get anything done for like two days. I know, because like they kept getting delayed. Okay, it's their fault. It's their fault the weather.

SPEAKER_02 33:21

Um, but I've never seen you so you're actually really good about not being on your phone, like and being present. Yeah. But like those two days, you're like, no, go away.

SPEAKER_00 33:30

Leave me alone. They're about to make history. And I do once I get into it, like, there isn't, I'm like, get away from me. I will get my work done, but not right now. It was very funny. I was like, I've never seen you like this. It there are a few, like there are a few other times it's happened. I can't pinpoint them, but I think I tell you, I was like, shit, okay. Does she love outer space? And I don't know what it was, but once I got invested in the story, there was no leaving it behind. And then Elliot, so because the launch ended up happening on a weekend, happening on a weekend, Elliot ended up picking up. Oh, yeah, Elliot was super exciting. Like, which obviously made it really cool for me. So then if he's interested in something different than like the normal three things he's interested in, I'm all over it. So I'm like, yes, we're talking about astronauts. You can be an astronaut. So anyway, that was like one of my favorite things.

SPEAKER_02 34:15

So you can get a little bit better at math.

SPEAKER_00 34:16

Yeah, well, we've got some room to go. Okay. Um, but so the article I have is from Cheddar, Cheddar.com. It walks through each month of exciting, fun things that happen. So there's a great LGBTQ wedding that happened in Ireland in the world.

SPEAKER_02 34:31

Oh, that was a huge deal, yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_00 34:32

Yeah, so yeah, these things that you're like, oh what? I forgot about that. Like this historic space launch happened in May. Do we remember that? So, anyway, the article is really lovely. I don't want to take away all of Nick's things because there might still be some similar things in here. But these ones are, um, the article I chose has some kind of obscure things. Like, obviously, we're not gonna we're not gonna not talk about the space launch, but we are also gonna talk about um the giant tortoise. Do you guys remember the giant tortoise?

SPEAKER_01 34:58

I don't remember the giant tortoise.

SPEAKER_00 34:59

You share, I think you talked about an article. Oh, I did, you're right. Diego. Oh yeah, that saved the yeah, he got retired. Yeah, yeah. So, you know, things like that that are kind of fun, happy points that we would otherwise forget about. Uh, we'll post the link to my article of my year-to-end highlights.

SPEAKER_02 35:11

Mine is from Yahoo. It's seven heartwarming things that happened. There's, you know, things you might expect from this year. But the two things I want to highlight from this are a record number of people voting. Yeah. 158 million. Um, the election, which feels like eight years ago somehow. Well, it's still happening. Right. It's still happening. Still not official. Um, but I think, you know, we talked a lot about the importance of voting. Um I think we're both happy with the outcome. Uh but it's um it's really cool. And hopefully, I think the election went a bad way because people viewed it as me versus you, you're with us or against us. But hopefully, all these people voting eventually does become the most important elections you can vote in, are your local ones. What the federal government does has a very small effect on you overall. It's the biggest dollars, but it has the least effect on what you do every day. What happens in your local governments is what affects you the most. And it's also where you can be the kindest to your neighbors or the crappiest to your neighbors. Um, you know, you can go protest against their variants to put their porch two feet closer to your lot line, even though it's a hundred feet away. Or you can say, hey, I totally support, you know, this is nice that they can have this. So hopefully, I'm hoping these record number of people voting leads to people being like, you know what, let's up the quality of our local government. Let's up the quality of engagement, let's make sure we're all engaged with this. And then the other story was how many, I'm um, when we do charity things, a lot of people want us to donate to pet shelters, and we don't do that as a business. We think ultimately humans are more important than pets, and we want our dollars to go to being humans rather than pets. Not that pets aren't important, but we do have a limited charity budget, and we'd rather do that. So some people accuse me of hating animals, which is not true. Not true. Um, but I think it's really cool that a lot of these animal shelters ran out of pets to adopt.

SPEAKER_00 37:07

Yeah, that is cool. Elliot keeps asking when he can go to the animal shelter to like volunteer. To get a Saint Grenard? I no, he wants a Doberman Pinterest. Oh no. No, no, okay, seriously. Um, I do, since we're on our news articles, want to mention, um, we've talked about them before because we've shared articles from them, but the happy newspaper. Yeah. So we are so inundated with getting all the crap thrown at us in the media. There's a thing called the happy newspaper, and actually, it was on my list to buy as a gift for my family. Like, you can send the happy newspaper as a subscription, and I just like forgot or didn't get around to it. Shannon got it for all of us as well. So quarterly, we get a happy newspaper, and it is only happy articles. So check them out if you like, you know, don't want to read the normal.

SPEAKER_02 37:47

Yeah, there's a lot of stories in mine about, you know, Americans donating, showing care. And I saw uh a friend of mine on Facebook, actually an ex-principal of mine, share a thing about how Americans really are amazing in the face of adversity, natural disasters. We open up our homes to strangers, we donate food, we go and donate blood. We really are people that, if you ask us, we will give you the shirt off our back as a society. But what we won't do is figure out structures to make sure that people don't need to ask for houses. We won't work on climate change to make sure that these floods don't happen. We won't do the things ahead of time to prevent the disaster. Maybe it's because we have a hero complex and want to be heroes. Maybe it's because we don't realize this. Um it kind of goes in conjunction with my thing that I want to work on in 2021, which is put in place these systems, work on being better every day, you know, 10% better every day so that once to avoid these situations so we don't have to be 100% better. Um so I just want to say that, put that out of the universe.

SPEAKER_00 38:57

Are you leading into a dad joke? Because this is awkward.

SPEAKER_02 39:00

I just wanted to put that into the the universe of like, let's all think about that. Like, what are things we can do every day? What is the long work we can do to save ourselves?

SPEAKER_00 39:07

Yeah, it's we've seen a year of unprecedented shittiness. And so instead of that, we we keep trying and obviously we fall on the rut of like talking about how bad things have been. Um so we are I it sounds like we, maybe we as a podcast should make a not resolution, goal. A goal? A goal to be more positive. So I think we go up and down quite a bit.

SPEAKER_02 39:29

I love how a lot of the times you'll stand on one foot or the other foot. I know, I do, I just like do the tree yoga pose. What foot am I standing on?

SPEAKER_00 39:36

Your right foot?

SPEAKER_02 39:37

It's because I want to start 2021 on the right foot.

SPEAKER_00 39:39

Oh Jesus, okay. And with that, we're taking a break. Okay, we're back. I love singing it. Okay, we're here with our product recommendations, and it might be no surprise to you that Nick and I love to plan, as we previously mentioned. So we're both talking about journals, slash planners, slash things of that nature. I have to give my product recommendation shout out to Ruth, who is married to my cousin Danny. Hi, Ruth. She has an awesome account called the Speathman House, H-A-U-S. And she um they bought their first house and they're doing all kinds of projects with it. They have like the most beautiful, perfectly put together house. Oh, is this the ridiculous house that you showed me? Uh no, no, this is not. I this is a relatively new account for her, and um, she it just it's beautifully curated. Like it's nice and neat and clean. They have a little fluffy puppy and no kids yet to make it messy. So, um, but every kid needs a fluffy puppy. A fluffy puppy. But I have to say, Ruth, um, so we've talked about planners probably 10 million times before, and I'm always looking for like the perfect one, and I'm not married to one I thought I was, and then like 2020 happened. So Ruth actually just showed one on her stories. Um I don't know if I'm saying this right, the Lavendaire Shop, and it's a daily planner, and it just looks so lovely and looks like it would fit all of my needs. And this is what Ruth was saying about it as well. Like, it you can fill in the date, so it's not predated. So, like if you miss a day of filling in your planner, you feel terrible and that you've lost all control. But it's got like today I want to feel relaxed, or today's focus is this, and then it has like a spot for a to-do list. It has a today, I'm watching this. Oh, yeah. Um, so it has your to-do list, it has what you're grateful for, good things from the day, and then like different notes. So it's just a little bit different. Yeah, like I I um went on and bought one for myself, so thank you. I don't know, younger than me. Yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_02 41:56

So she has some like very like 26-year-olds.

SPEAKER_00 41:59

Ruth, I should know how old you are.

SPEAKER_02 42:00

I'm successful with doing this like Instagram story where she's like talking about all these things and pointing them out. I'm like, Jesus Christ, all of my cousins are younger indulgent.

SPEAKER_00 42:08

Yes, all of my cousins are younger than me.

SPEAKER_02 42:09

We're the older, we're the old cousins. People think us millennials are dulgent, like, watch a Gen Zier on the.

SPEAKER_00 42:15

I wanna say she might turn 30 this year. Is that right, Ruth? Okay.

SPEAKER_02 42:20

My little brother-in-law is on the Twitch and he talks about how he's playing, it's a video game streaming thing. And so he's like, yeah, I'm just playing the video. I'm like, my God, and like people watch it, and like I watch it because it's like, oh no, hang on. But it's like, my god, you feel very comfortable talking about yourself.

SPEAKER_00 42:35

Well, I mean, I like talking about myself too, so so we'll link out to this bathman house so you can check out Ruth's awesome home decor, and then you also will link out to the La Vendere shop, which has this daily planner that I have ordered, and we'll see how it works in 2021. And there you go, that's my planner.

SPEAKER_02 42:51

We've talked about before. This is the Spark Daily Planner. Uh 2021 screwed with my planning a little bit.

SPEAKER_00 42:58

Yeah, man.

SPEAKER_02 42:59

But I just like threw mine out the window. When I can um plan, you know, like here's a four weeks worth of accomplished tasks. Yay! Um week. It does really good for me. It really helps my like I've been very good the last two weeks. You know, like Friday doesn't always get planned up. Um, but like it really helps with mental sanity. Uh the lady that runs this is super awesome. These are great quality. I spilled a bunch of crap on it, it's only slightly, you know, I have it in my bag all the time. Um, beautiful colors. She's uh sent out a lot of really great 2021 planning resources. Um you can get them in convolt.com. Uh I haven't started filling out my 2021 yet. Oh, but it's here. Oh, look at the color of that one. I have each of my last five years of planners. I keep them as kind of like a journal. Um, I do like journaling, but I just never quite get it done. So I have like this beautiful color there, always a blue or a purple. And um, yeah, I'm gonna link to it. It works really great for me. It has some flexibility, it lets you preform a little bit. But also structure, which I like. A little bit of both.

SPEAKER_00 44:03

Yeah. I will throw in an overarching one more general product rec is get yourself a gratitude journal. Every year, um, I get one from my sister typically, and I used to go into it really overwhelmed. Like, okay, well, when should I write these down? How many things should I write that I'm grateful for? What and she's like, stop. And she's made them for me instead of purchasing them like she has made them and written quotes in them. And that's awesome. I just made a rule for myself because I need a little structure. Every single day before I go to bed, I write two things I'm grateful for, and they can be stupid. Like they can literally be, I'm grateful that this champagne was so delicious.

SPEAKER_02 44:34

I'm grateful that magically over the break it refilled itself.

SPEAKER_00 44:38

Oh, it did magically do that. Magic. So anyway, do start doing a little gratitude thing. Like, whatever, it's easy. I I used to do it. I look back at mine, of course, and like I can tell there are nights that I was out at the bars and I came back and I still did it because it's like for my friends. So anyway, very funny. Get yourself gratitude journal as well. That means we'll be right back. All right, guys, we're back. I'm back. And guess what? More products for you. But these are real life products. So if you work with us at Christmas, I brought a bag of things for Nick. There are two things in here, and they're fun little things. I don't want things in the big. So we weren't together on Christmas. So I brought this like little Christmas gift for Nick. So this hat has a fun story, and I don't know if Nick remembers it. But early on in our friendship, we went to a badger's game together. I actually ordered this hat for your birthday and it showed up the day after your birthday. So Nick bought it the hat at a badger's game and he said, Sarah would never let me have this hat. Okay, do have this. You can find it if you have it. Okay, so first the hat. So he said, Sarah, he said, Sarah will never let me have it. It's so ridiculous. So I've had it on my gift list for Nick forever. So I have this. Okay, then what Nick is looking at right now is a cookbook called Big, I don't know if it's a cookbook, but I realist. It says Big Macs and Burgundy, and it's wine pairings for real food. So I should have given this to him in our Pinkies Up episode where we talk about like what real people say about wine. So like it's easy to say like beef tenderloin tastes delicious with this fancy wine. But this is like, hey, dude, I'm eating ramen for dinner. What wine should I have with it? And it is so interesting to me. So like I look, I kept paging through it, is like, I'm gonna keep this book. I'm not gonna give it to Nick. Um, but I thought it was so funny and so interesting.

SPEAKER_02 46:40

This is still douchey. This is awesome. So it's Lucky Charms and Washoo Reese and Schmargon, which is like what? A super douchey hard to find. Is it really? Oh, this is like an incredible pairing, but it's also like super douche. There's one in here. Oh god, what is it? I don't know how hard these are fine. But isn't it funny? This is awesome. Mm-hmm. Oh, and some French Tori, which is a really inexpensive, really hard-to-find Italian sparkling model. But eat it with your lucky charge. This is what I love. So, my all-time favorite, so Richard, thank you.

SPEAKER_00 47:12

Yeah, man, I love the book. I think we can have some fun with it.

SPEAKER_02 47:14

We're gonna have some fun with this. So, um, I have a friend, he's he's very aged um and very experienced. He does wine auctions, is part of the many things he does. And he sold some people's really expensive wine, and this person had one of the greatest private collections of champagne, and her husband died, and she was selling it all. And she she she did a series of three or four auctions, and each one she the actual auction they always do a meal with it, and uh, usually there's some wine pairings, and you have to pay for it and whatever. But it's well worth it. I gotta go a couple of them, it's amazing. And pre-pupped, of course. Yeah, and um as she was offline the champagne thing, it was a buttered truck popcorn. Oh. And I'm telling you right now, the best wine pairing combination in the world is buttered truffle popcorn with like $700 bottles.

SPEAKER_00 48:04

Yeah, so just go get yourself a $700 bottle for tonight. And that's not like super douchey to say. Okay, well, luckily there's a cheap wine cheat sheet in here. So it says, if you like this, then try this. Okay, no, this is funny.

SPEAKER_02 48:17

Alright, let's go into this. Shabley, Shabley, you can get $20 for $20 for a decent bottle. I'll say Champino Punk is what you should try instead. No, that's $25. Okay, everybody. Nick is gonna have to be a big one. Boy, Burgundy, Margaret? This is harder! So these are hilarious. Oh, you shouldn't try Navara? You know, good luck. Good luck. Free Rots and Monston. That's a good one. Uh, I think we'll have a whole patagonium pig. Red Burgundy, Central Otago. Central Otago classes touched now! Put the book away, Nick. Oh my gosh.

SPEAKER_01 48:46

We're gonna have a whole episode of the biggest. Oh, I like this picture though.

SPEAKER_00 48:48

Yeah, and I love the pictures actually in the book.

SPEAKER_01 48:51

There's this picture.

SPEAKER_02 48:51

Let me find it again.

SPEAKER_00 48:52

Honestly, I just want to get it for everybody. So anyone listening that knows her. What is it? Oh, Jesus Christ. It's a person in a bathtub with why I never did.

SPEAKER_02 49:01

It's a lady with her legs.

SPEAKER_00 49:03

Well, who knows? How do you know that's a lady? Look at the legs. Get out of here. Boring, but beautiful. Okay, Bridget. Yeah, man, I love the book. That's so wonderful of you. Anytime. I like your hat.

SPEAKER_02 49:13

I do too. Alright. You know what it's time for now. Do you? Because we're off track. It's time for fantasy update with Bridget.

SPEAKER_00 49:20

Um, I deleted that. Actually, we're going into mid-new year without I didn't do well. Pretty much I stopped winning halfway through the season. I was doing great on top of my game and then went down.

SPEAKER_02 49:35

2021 resolution. Don't lose all of your players in fantasy to COVID.

SPEAKER_00 49:40

Stop. Don't do COVID. Don't do fantasy while COVID is happening. It's too hard to keep track of. We joke a lot about it in my brother's league of like, it's just a game of who's paying attention like that at every minute. Because every minute some other game's getting cancelled. So, bye-bye, fantasy.

SPEAKER_02 49:55

Alright, but really what it's time for. Really? I know that was an anti-climatic finish too. What was really an interesting segment throughout the year. Sorry, listeners, but it's really time for interesting questions with Bridget and Nick! Nick Week! Alright. So we're doing a little New Year's Eve theme, because we are on New Year's Eve. Alright. You don't really need to be looking on YouTube because I look great right now. Same? Alright, so this one, I did find this one on the internet that I personalized a little bit to add a degree of difficulty. Okay. And interest, because it adds some parameters. Would you rather clean up confetti in Times Square after New Year's Eve with Lucy? Oh, Jesus. Or have to do a complete scrub down of the Milwaukee Zoo's elephant cage with Elliot. Oh.

SPEAKER_00 50:40

Okay, so first of all, the Elliot's gonna pick up the poop. I actually think Lucy would pick up the confetti. She would pick up the confetti. And she's so helpful. No, no, no. She would eat it. She would eat it? She would lay down on the ground and lick it. So I do think I'm gonna go with elephant poop, except it smells so bad. Like you have to scrub it down. I know, but I used to- Ellie's gonna pick it up. I have friends that grew up on farms and I used to love scraping the stalls with them, okay? I know. It was a weird thing, but it was weirdly satisfying. I'm going with elephant poop. Although, side note, the logistics of New York um Times Square New Year's Eve has always been so interesting to me. I love the logistics of large-scale events. It's a weird thing.

SPEAKER_02 51:18

I don't think I would clean up the kinfetti with Lou because I think she would actually be helpful. I don't think she wouldn't. No, she wouldn't! I think if I said, no no no. Whose kid are you looking at me? I think No, I think she would do it. I think she'd be helpful. I think Elliot would start picking up the poop and throwing it and chasing Elliot, the elephants. No.

SPEAKER_00 51:36

Elliot is Elliot has aged since you've seen him two weeks ago or whatever. Elliot's a better listener. Lucy's too young to listen. Okay, whatever, man.

SPEAKER_02 51:46

I think we can harness her manic energy for this task.

SPEAKER_00 51:48

Nick's getting on a plane right now, and he's gonna go help clean up Timesquare at 3 a.m.

SPEAKER_02 51:54

Would you rather be the featured singer of Old Lang Zion at midnight on Seacrest's Countdown? Or be the backup singer. Oh, also you've had two drinks. Or be so like a little more confident but also a little less quality. Wait, am I a good singer or not? No, you're your. Oh, yeah, okay. Or be the backup dancer to Beyoncé's New Year's Eve performance with no rehearsal and you don't know what she's singing. But you just gotta get up there and dance. Behind Beyoncé.

SPEAKER_00 52:24

Well, I'm a terrible dancer and singer, so these are great. Um singer. Because if youyonce's not ending well. I can plan at least the lyrics, and then we can just blame it on all the viewers were drunk, so they thought I was a bad singer? I was great.

SPEAKER_02 52:43

I would do the singing too, I would, you know, like the people that do uh take me out to the ballgame and Cubs games that just are like, I suck!

SPEAKER_00 52:49

I don't care. Yeah, that'd be. I'm here having fun. I would use I had microphone in one hand, champagne in the other to really hammer home effect.

SPEAKER_02 52:56

I thought you might chose the dancing because I thought about it.

SPEAKER_00 53:00

But you told me I didn't know what she was saying. Like very unprepared. Oh yes.

SPEAKER_02 53:04

And like you could like go along with beyond the state.

SPEAKER_00 53:05

Yeah, it would mostly just be like a whole bunch of. It would be nice. We'd look good, but I'm gonna go with singing.

SPEAKER_02 53:14

Alright. And then the last one. Would you rather have a party blowout thing for a nose?

SPEAKER_00 53:19

So every time you sneeze, it goes, every time it what?

SPEAKER_02 53:23

Every time you sneeze. Oh boy. Okay. Or would you rather have confetti in your throat so every time you cough it goes.

SPEAKER_01 53:30

That's awful. So awful.

SPEAKER_00 53:33

Um But we have a mask on right now, so I just choke on the confetti. But uh I want a party blower as a nose, obviously. You sneeze less than you do cough, I think. Right? I don't know. I feel like people in 2020, if you just go, they're like, oh my oh my god, get away from me. You have COVID. Um, I want a party blower. Come on. I think I'd go that way too. Also, I'm gonna suffocate on my own confetti. I'd rather just like make it awkward and make people like laugh when I sneeze. Those are good New Year's questions. Thanks. I think we're really upping our interesting questions. I think we are too. I hope you're enjoying them. Um, should we do a quick, like, you know, trip down memory lane? Let's do it. Let's do it. So, you know, 2020, whatever. I pulled out just like a I'm sure there's a million, and I'm gonna feel guilty that I forgot so many of them. But I pulled out just like a handful of things that stuck out to me about this year that were not like, oh yeah, the coronavirus happened. So I'm gonna run through them. I'll go quick, right? Okay, year reflection. I shouldn't say that this goes in order because I'm bad at that. But um we had what I would call an at-home daycare in our basement, and that was cool. Not legally, everybody, like we didn't start a daycare, we're not in trouble. We just like shit shut down quickly, and like we were all very much in panic mode with our jobs, still like trying to flip the whole store to curbside, and we needed to work, but our kids had nowhere to go. So we um have the luxury of knowing many childcare professionals through Tyler's job. So we were able to kind of like in our basement, like set up a little thing, and um Smona was able to come over, and then our two kids, and we paid the teachers like we would if daycare was open. Um, so we were able to do that at home daycare, kind of awesome, which is something all of our friends say that Tyler should do forever. Like, I mean, literally for years, our friends have been like, Tyler, open a daycare, and I'm like, uh no, I don't want a daycare in my house, but thank you. So at home daycare, yay, Shaq. Um, Easter really stuck out in my mind. Uh, my phone crashed and I lost a whole bunch of pictures, which was like devastating to me. Devastating. I got all except one month back, and the month was April, like the beginning of COVID and Easter. So, but on that note, I did put together a photo book for my parents of so on Easter, like we are very big family holiday people, and we did not see my parents on Easter. We drove to the driveway and we we put together an Easter basket, and in it was a photo book of like, here's what you've missed while we've been in quarantine. So the photos I lost.

SPEAKER_01 55:58

I remember that was cool.

SPEAKER_00 55:59

Yeah, I had already put into a photo book for my parents, like, so I didn't have all of them, but I had a photo book of like thinking, we'll be back to normal in like a month, so here's the photo book. So that Easter was weird and sad and um but also kind of cool. So we we literally like set up stadium chairs in their driveway and said hi, so from 10 feet away. So whatever. That was fun. Um, full credit to my my sister Shannon, she started a thing called Advent Calendar of Misery. And this was just like every time something shitty happened, obviously I'm going out of order. Every time something shitty happened, she was like, Text me. Advent calendar of misery, my car broke down. Advent calendar of misery. Yeah, so whatever. Advent calendar of misery, hilarious and awesome. We're continuing it into January because she's still having some car troubles. So, advent calendar of misery, hilarious. We should maybe develop one for next year. Um, Lucy turned one. Uh yeah, that was awesome. Like, she turned one back in June. But like, if you do look back at at which I'm sure everyone has done now, at pictures from like early quarantine until now, it's insane. Like, your kids have grown almost a full year, and if you have kids or your dog or whatever has grown a whole year, and you kind of like have not seen a lot of people, whatever, that's very weird. So we Lucy turned one, which was really awesome. Um, Elliot started school, like official school. So uh that's a huge deal for us. Like, he's only half day, but that's a big adjustment for um, I don't know, anyone that has kids knows that that's a big adjustment. So we are grateful he got to go to school, got to start school. Um, we had COVID hit pretty close to home. Um my dad had it early on. I actually had the experience of ex having COVID and my mom. So I'm super super grateful we all are on the other side of it. We all made it, but that happened in 2020, and everything is fine with us, which I'm grateful for. And then ending the year with um, we are doing a renovation on our house. We're doing an addition and a renovation, which is obviously a huge thing, um, and it's given us something to really look forward to. Uh, so we are in the throes of we're supposed to break around actually, like in the next week or so. So we'll see if that stays on time. But we're doing a renovation, so that's a very, very broad view of our year in reflection.

SPEAKER_02 58:10

We built a house.

SPEAKER_00 58:11

That was this year, that feels like so long.

SPEAKER_02 58:14

Um we've been here since May, and um Sarah and I worked really hard for this. Uh, this is really important to both of us. We did the whole process of finding land. It happened to be land that was in our family in a weird way and is very important to us for a number of reasons. Um, and then we built the house and we did it our way, and we did it through our hard work and our professional accomplishments, and we're really proud of it. And it's something we did together, and um I could have done it without Sarah, Sarah could have done it without me. Um, and we're just very proud of it. So, like, this is a huge thing that we've we've been together 10 years now, and it's seven years worth of work. And um, so yeah, we're really proud of it. Yeah, it's awesome. Um Samoa turned one. We had Sentover Fest, which was a little muted because of COVID, but it was still fun. Bridget designed a banner. And the wind was muted because of the wind. Stupid wind. Stupid wind ruining all of the things. Um, but that was really fun, and I hope it's a thing we can keep going. Um her birthday's October 15th. Thought I'd just been swallowing there. Uh no, the problem is her mom and grandma have birthdays in October, so they're all like the same. In the teens. Yeah. Um, so her birthday's October 15th, and it's also my parents' anniversary, which is like, I'm like, wait. Yeah, that's it. And I always think my parents' anniversary is a 20, and I'm like, no. So anyway, um, busy time. Um so I hope we can like blow that up in the future, and we have these five acres that we love, and we hope we can do more of an outdoor thing, and we love Oktoberfest. We do. I don't know if like as a podcast, we love Oktoberfest. Um I hope we can make it like this incredibly fun, and like I know it's kind of her parents' party, and like when she turns one, it's definitely hers, but I do hope like we can have her friends over too, and like our friends, and her friends are our friends, and our friends are her friends, and she can have this cool thing where like and she's in college, and you'd be like, hey, you know, like I go back home for this weekend because my I'm like, I'm hoping you're thinking in the future, maybe.

SPEAKER_01 1:00:27

I like she's gonna be like, my parents are dumb, but she's like, I gotta do Sintoberfest with my parents.

SPEAKER_00 1:00:34

Like, let's do it! She's gonna get shirts made for all her friends or whatever they're doing in 20 years.

SPEAKER_02 1:00:40

It's gonna be great. It's gonna be great. Um, and then you know, there's a lot of things. Um, but going back through pictures and um the picture of you and I at um Gazing Greys.

SPEAKER_00 1:00:52

Oh yeah, okay.

SPEAKER_02 1:00:53

And also we look like really young and really happy.

SPEAKER_00 1:00:56

We look dewy, it's sweat, but I actually agree. We like that was a day, man. That was something to be proud of. And I was just, it kind of summed up. We look young.

SPEAKER_02 1:01:06

We looked young and innocent. It was just like three months ago. Um, but I was like honestly just very proud of um, you know, this is hard to say without sounding whiny or douchey or something like that. But you're used to that, guys. But you and I have really worked our butts off and done a lot of adaptation, and what people don't see is we had like three projects that we went really hard at really fast with really good quality, and we didn't get a do because of changing COVID things. And at least three. And, you know, let's say it was you know, it's tens of thousands of dollars worth of work that we had to just throw away.

SPEAKER_00 1:01:49

And um that were now like, do we do this in 2021 or not?

SPEAKER_02 1:01:53

And Gazing Grays was something we had in kind of a different form. Um, but we adapted it, and despite a lot of haters and challenges, um, we made it happen.

SPEAKER_01 1:02:10

I remember it, it seemed so long ago.

SPEAKER_02 1:02:12

It was like such a great collaboration, and so many people came together, and like the things I think we like about events, and like we maybe get off on a little bit with events, like all of them happened. It was like kind of the advent calendar of shit, like checklist of things that day. Advent calendar of misery, whatever it was. Um, like it was kind of a checklist, and we still made it happen. At the end of the night, we had Ron and Josie there with us, like helping us clean up. And it was like all of these things.

SPEAKER_00 1:02:36

I love that. Yep. And like no one thinks about that. You all go home, you had a great time, thanks for coming, and then like we have two hours of minimum of cleanup to do. So when our friends stay around and we can all like have a glass of wine while we're schlapping tables, that is amazing. So, yeah, that was that was so fun.

SPEAKER_02 1:02:53

So, yeah, that came up in my like photo stream. I was like, you know, I I was really proud of that. That was a really happy night. Um, we both dressed up a little bit. I know. As much as we could with I put on earrings? So um Birk and Socratically dressed, yeah.

SPEAKER_00 1:03:06

So that was that would be like the third there's a lot more highlights, but that was the one where it's just like it was a lot of like I don't know how the there were so many people that we knew that came, which meant so much to us, and then so many people we didn't know, which was so cool.

SPEAKER_02 1:03:21

That table of younger people that legitimately are like, hey, is this like on street parking?

SPEAKER_00 1:03:26

Or like he called me earlier in the day and was like, well, like, is there somewhere to park? I'm like, yeah, we have a full parking lot. So do I just like park on a street? I'm like, no, so have you ever been here? And he's like, no. And they were like 21 and they came fully dressed up and they went in the store and they bought things and they enjoyed their dinner, and they were so polite and lovely. And so, like, that to me was really cool. Seeing like Phil and Emily, having Shannon with her like brand new baby come off a set of tables. Like, it's cool when an event comes together and everyone helps, and I think that was like really truly the time that people were the first thing people really did. Like it was we were we had tables out in a field completely spread apart, outdoors, and like we lucked the heck out with the weather. Except for the wind. Except for the wind until like the event started, and then there was no wind, but setting up with a neck here. So, anyway, it was yeah, it was cool. That that's a good memory, man. Fair one. Oh we could go on forever.

SPEAKER_02 1:04:23

So, anyway, thanks for listening for a year in review. Uh, quick, because I want to make sure I talk about this. Yes. We're gonna do a spice up your new year idea. We're gonna spice up your new year meal plan.

SPEAKER_00 1:04:34

Um spice up your life! Yeah, of course. So, um, our meal plan, we we've been taking the time off, obviously, because we're not gonna meal plan around your holidays because I don't know what you guys are doing for New Year's. Do whatever. Nick's making fancy food. I'm eating peppermint ice cream, so whatever. Um, so going into the new year, we're doing spice up your new year. And yeah, we're doing all spicy recipes. Um, I chose one in case you don't love the spice as much. I was eating like spicy Thai food the other night, thinking of this, oddly. Um, so I chose a sweet and spicy Thai pork loin. Sure.

SPEAKER_02 1:05:06

My favorite is like you're like, oh, I like Thai food, and like, oh, Tyler likes this, and like no, no, no, no.

SPEAKER_00 1:05:11

Oh no. T H A I So confusing! Oh, yeah, there was a restaurant in Milwaukee that was near our condo that was called Mai Thai, and it was like our favorite place to go. So, like, Tyler's nickname has been Mai Thai forever. Okay, anyway, we love Thai food. So I obviously chose a Thai recipe. It's a good recipe. So it's pork, it's easy, it's affordable, my kids like it. Uh, you can dial down the spice. Although I gave Lucy some really what I thought was relatively spicy stuff the other day, and she was good with it.

SPEAKER_02 1:05:38

She's ching up not so much. She's gonna clean up the confetti while eating spicy New York food.

SPEAKER_00 1:05:42

She's gonna lick the floor, lick the pavement in Times Square. Um, so this one's easy to prep, put together. It doesn't take a lot of time. The prep time doesn't take a lot, but it is a four and a half hour recipe. Yeah, because it's a slow cooker. Yes. So throw it in the slow cooker, forget about it. Um, good way to start off your new year, I'd say you don't have to stress. About dinner.

SPEAKER_02 1:06:01

My pick is because ultimately what I say in this is something I have to make for Sarah. And this week I'm starting the new year getting ahead and I'm smarting the system. This is something Sarah cooks for herself, uh, cooks for her family because her family loves it. She introduced it to them. It was something she's always had. We all know and love, but we take it to a new level. Yes. Chorizo and queso dip. Y'all know I have a special place in my heart for Velveeta. It's um it's uh disgusting. But genetically enered to be perfect for melting and dips like this. And last forever. You add our chorizo sausage, it makes it amazing. I know, I have not tried this. And uh, we have some smoked mac and cheese upstairs that I think Sarah and Smona are eating for lunch. Then I use a little bit of leftover velve. Um I mean I make a beigeamel first and then fold in the velvea.

SPEAKER_00 1:06:51

Oh yeah, so I make my mac and cheese too.

SPEAKER_02 1:06:53

Uh but you know, uh, it's very delicious. So this is a recipe Sarah does a great job making. Uh we'll probably have it. It's wildcard weekend. Hopefully, fingers crossed the Packers win this week and don't have to play wildcard weekends.

SPEAKER_01 1:07:08

Yeah. Go pack up. Sorry, Bears. So, alright. It's time for Kid Corner!

SPEAKER_00 1:07:17

Do we count this as the last of 2020 or the first of 2021?

SPEAKER_02 1:07:20

I think we count this as last of 2020 because it says we recorded. You know, I went to law school, I learned just a small number of things, but if you dropped a check at 11.59 p.m., it's postmark on 1231. It was sent on 1231.

SPEAKER_00 1:07:33

Alright, man.

SPEAKER_02 1:07:33

So it's when we recorded.

SPEAKER_00 1:07:34

That's good because mine's a recap of Christmas. And listen, I know Kid Corner is supposed to be funny. We talk about weird things our kids did, but I just gotta tell you the magic. So, yes, like um Lucy doesn't care or know about Christmas. She opens presents like kind of one thing at a time. But man, Elliot is at an age, like he gets it. I think next year is gonna be the prime, but then soon after that, I think like there's gonna be asshole kids that ruin Santa. So I'm really sad about that already. So this year he like got it. He was full in on Santa, all over the reindeer and the food they eat. But so like that was.

SPEAKER_02 1:08:09

He was big into the snacks for Santa.

SPEAKER_00 1:08:12

He told me about it. Like he woke up on Christmas Eve morning and was like, we have to make cookies for Santa. We're like, yeah, man, like we'll get to it. It's 6 a.m. Yeah, but we have to and he went to the fridge immediately and got the milk and was like, we have to put it out. Like, Santa comes at night while you're sleeping. He's like, so probably four or five times that day he went to the fridge being like, Okay, is it time? And I'm like, this is my fault. I've I've taught you to plan. And and I can't- Were you proud though? I mean, a little, but also like, no, dude, this is a trick we use to get you to sleep. And he like ran to bed that night. It was the most amazing thing. So the magic. Um, but moreover, like longer lasting the snow. And we just got a dumped on yesterday, day before. Yes, overnight, right? Like the perfect amount of snow for a snow day type of thing. Like it happened all overnight.

SPEAKER_03 1:09:00

But what dude?

SPEAKER_00 1:09:03

So um, I busted Elliot out. Yes, Elliot's at daycare this week because I still have a job, and Tyler has a job, so our kids are going to daycare, but like we're the quality or you won't. Or you won't, Bridget. So um, we uh I busted him out early, you know. I busted him out at two o'clock, and we went sledding because like now it's supposed to rain tomorrow, and I just I don't want the snow to go away because he literally is like wakes up this morning, he woke up and was like, There's still snow here, and there's more than yesterday. I'm like, no, actually there's not, it's the same amount, but yes. So anyway, just like you know, magical time of year, and yes, I'm talking about Elliot. Lucy doesn't give a crap about snow and doesn't really understand Christmas, but sh well, might next year. Uh so I just love like January. What I look forward to is the snow because like it's great to expel all the energy the kids have, and I like playing in the snow. I do too. Yeah, here we are.

SPEAKER_02 1:09:53

My story isn't a Christmas one. Simona had fun at Christmas, but like, yep. Uh, and it was just nice. Sarah and I, we got to be home, use Simona as a you know reason. Reason to be home. That was very nice, but we're not here to talk about Sarah and I, we're here to talk about Simona, who has started being very clear about what she wants in very cute and adorable ways. Like this morning, she has so like she has her morning milk in a very specific spot on our couch with some pillows, and then she gets a blanket over her and she sits there and drinks her milk, and we're calm while we drink it, because if we're not calm, we're gonna spit her up all over. And uh, so when you know we get her up and she plays a little bit, and then at some point she decides she wants her milk. And usually she decides that by going, Nope, nope, nope, nope. Uh, but what she started doing this like last couple days in particular is she crawls up on the couch, puts herself on the pillow, and looks at you expectantly.

SPEAKER_00 1:10:54

I love that.

SPEAKER_02 1:10:54

And that means do you bring her milk?

SPEAKER_00 1:10:56

That means bring me my milk, bitch.

SPEAKER_02 1:10:58

Sarah has started sending pictures. When it's snack time, she takes the blanket off the couch, puts it down on the floor, grabs the book she wants, grabs the remote control, and starts, because she gets to walk Mitchie Mouse uh gets to watch Mickey Mouse Clubhouse while she's watching even.

SPEAKER_00 1:11:15

While she's gonna snack. Oh my god, I love it.

SPEAKER_02 1:11:16

So she sets up her space and then looks expectant at you. And she might not have her words yet.

SPEAKER_01 1:11:22

But she has her words.

SPEAKER_02 1:11:24

But she is very clear. So it's just like really cool to see that, and it's it's helpful.

SPEAKER_00 1:11:29

This is why kids drive on a routine. This is 100% like my blanket goes here while I get my snack, okay? Gimme my Mickey Mouse. I love that. Oh man, she is gonna be demanding. Like her pal Lucy.

SPEAKER_02 1:11:45

I mean not even the bad behaviors, but like demanding behaviors.

SPEAKER_00 1:11:48

The demanding snarky. Lucy got her matching shoes to Simona. She got them at Christmas, so maybe she'll wear them around Simona soon.

SPEAKER_02 1:11:55

Oh my gosh, yeah. I I love We should like set up a like. We could put them at the shop, like on the kill floor. Oh my god, no! Hanging out on the like knocking pen.

SPEAKER_00 1:12:08

I've never been back.

SPEAKER_02 1:12:09

And it'd be like super like straight out of not putting my kids back there. Oh, it'd be like the biggest thing ever.

SPEAKER_00 1:12:15

I love that Adidas kicks. Adidas kicks our back, like, oh man, look at these cool shoes. I'm like, dudes, I wore these shoes in high school. So, like, influencers that are talking about these shoes now, these are vintage, okay? So, anyway, whatever. Our girls got kicks.

SPEAKER_02 1:12:31

We got some time on this one. So, thank you for listening. We uh we think this was fun.

SPEAKER_00 1:12:36

I don't know, I think so. I hope you're kicking off your dude. I hope you're kicking off your 2021 in a positive way. Like, remember, stand on your right foot. Literally, as I'm standing on my left. Thanks for listening, guys. Have a safe, happy, wonderful New Year's, and cheers to 2021.

SPEAKER_02 1:12:53

I have nothing more to say.

SPEAKER_00 1:12:55

I have one more thing.