It’s allliiiiiiiive! IowaGirlEats.com, that is!
Massive internet outages in my area, coupled with the complete failure of my site to even load anyways, resulted in pretty much an entire day without Internet and IGE yesterday. It was nerve-wracking!
Thank goodness I had Internet access through my crackberry because, at this point in my life, I don’t even know what I’d do if I didn’t have a connection to the outside world. Are you the same way?
In between phone calls to GoDaddy and my internet service provider, I watched the Hawkeyes just barely pull off a victory against the Indiana Hoosiers (seriously that team is so up and down, it gives me anxiety watching them play!) then I got in a great, 4 mile run at the gym.
Ben and I were going to go out with some friends in the evening, but plans fell through and as we were discussing what to do, Ben suggested renting an XBox video game. Those games and controllers have gotten so complicated you practically need an engineering degree to play them, so I vetoed the idea. “Hey, wait!” he exclaimed, “I think we still have my old Super Nintendo in the basement!” Ummm, why haven’t we been playing that EVERY night?! Let’s do it!
We went to Trader Joe’s to pick up the essentials (food & beer, natch) then hooked that baby UP!
Well, it wasn’t as easy as that… You see this thing is like, what, almost TWENTY YEARS OLD and took some convincing to get going.
We tried the standard “blow in the game”
“wiggle” and “check the back”.
At last, victory was ours!
Ugh, how much do you love old school Nintendo?!
We settled in with blankets,
and necessities, including some great German Wheat beer from TJ’s,
and Orange Chicken that they were demoing at the store, (seeeeriously better then takeout!)
and played our little hearts out!
We were halfway done with the game before we even knew it. I remember it taking me weeks to complete level 1 when this first came out!!
I kept a constant vigil on my site during the process.
Fail.
AT LAST, it came up around 8pm or so, thanks to Bryan from GoDaddy. He and his supervisor moved me to a new server, which they usually don’t do for individual accounts, but they made a “special exception” in my case. Aka, they knew they couldn’t get rid of me as I was calling every. 5. minutes. At any rate, it’s fixed! Persistence pays. 
This morning I slept in ’til what I thought was 8:30, which was actually only 7:30 because of daylight savings time! I wanted something super fresh with my morning coffee. Apples & Almond Butter it was.
It’s actually been awhile since I’ve had almond butter, so I decided to mark it’s return by opening a new jar of Trader Joe’s Crunchy Almond Butter with Roasted Flaxseeds that I’ve had in my pantry for aaaages.
There’s little chopped up almonds inside, along with flaxseeds that have been roasted so they PoP in your mouth. This stuff is DENSE – 100 calories per Tablespoon!
But it’s oh so delish!
I served a blob of it alongside a massive Honeycrisp apple. I am honest to God stuffed right now.
If you’ve never tried this almond butter, and live close to a TJ’s, you should pick up a jar sometime. The texture is fab!
This afternoon Ben and I having lunch at my parent’s house. It’s been weeks since our standard Sunday afternoon lunch – I’m looking forward to it!!!
Talk to you later!
~~~~~
Did you play video games growing up? Which ones were your favorite?
I loved Duke Nukem on the computer and Super Mario Brothers, Mario Cart & Donkey Kong on Nintendo/SNES. Towards the end I kind of got into James Bond too. I also have two brothers.
I must find that TJ’s Almond Butter – looks delicious! Paired with a Honeycrisp apple – YUM!
I love that you guys busted out your old Super Nintendo! Oh the days of blowing inside of the game to make it work! I used to love The Legend of Zelda and remember playing for weeks to beat the game during the summer time. We actually have it as one of the downloadable games on our Wii now. Love.
Have a great day!
This night looks so fun! Stephen and I love videogames. He has a PS3 that we get really into from time to time. As a child, I had a Super Nintendo too. My fave games were the Super Mario ones. I also loved ZELDA (I named my cat Link after the hero of the game) and a crazy game called Lufia.
Oh my gosh! = Ok, old school – Pac Man – or how about the original – “Pong”! I remember when video games first came out! And my cousin brought his pong to our house – everybody laughed! – Who knew they would beat pinball! (oh – guess I AM old!) That’s ok – I can still whip my kids’ butts on the Wii!
OMG, Pong! My half-brother had a black-and-white TV set that I eventually inherited, and it had Pong built in! Memories!
I was a deprived child and never had/played video games. It’s all good though.
I’m pretty sure I couldn’t live without the Internet anymore. Sad, but true.
HAHA my mom and I made that same orange chicken last night after a sample at TJ’s too! It was SOOO GOOD! The store was not too packed last night…Loved it!
My fave games were and are Donkey Kong (all the versions!), Super Mario World, and kind of Mario Kart. I didn’t really do anything else. Ever since then I haven’t been able to play or understand games–they are so 3D!!!!! I am a 2D person for sure. 
haha!
ALSO I still have my old Super Nintendo, which was my first purchase as a 6 year old. I saved up half of the cost and mom paid the other half! No clue where I got that money at age 6!
I loved/LOVE video games! My favorite older games are definitely Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time and Super Mario Bros 3! Oh gosh, and Paper Boy!
Now I play Xbox 360 pretty regularly! Mostly Halo Reach. Nerdy confession: I’m trying to train to eventually be a pro gamer!
Haha! I forgot about PaperBoy. I liked that one too. And definitely Legend of Zelda!
Yay, you’re back! Well, you weren’t gone…but your site kind of was. Perhaps it went to Italy for a while.
Our taste is the same for video games. I loved Super Mario, Donkey Kong and James Bond. I also loved playing Zelda and Duck Hunt on the even older original Nintendo. I think I actually have the Super Nintendo and Mario/Donkey Kong. I should look into that when I have some time.
Looks like a good night was had!
I still like all the basic games. Mario, Mario Kart, and Donkey Kong.
That is so cool that you played Super Nintendo! I love Mario games but I’m terrible at them so I usually play Mario Kart. Your Honey crisp looks super yummy!
Haha I agree that video games have gotten way too complicated these days! I loved SEGA Genesis growing up. Sonic was my favorite!
I love playing video games! The DOS games I played on the computer were Hocus Pocus and Commander Keen. I still play them! My sister has a Nintendo DS so I play games on there too. My favorite game is Mario Kart Wii!
I was a Sega girl! Ummm was jsut thinking about that AB from TJs the other day. Need to get on it, stat. I kept refreshing waiting for your Saturday post yesterday! Obsessed much?!
My favorite kind of old school night, along with my favorite TJ’s almond butter:) Sounds fab! Congrats on getting your site back up!
I was aaalll about Pac Man. We didn’t have an Atari, but I did have a mini console of the game, and I’d play it whenever I visited friends who had Atari, or wherever I could find an arcade version of the game. I was so obsessed, I wanted a Pac Man swimming pool when I grew up!
Even now, I’ll occasionally throw a quarter into Ms. Pac Man when I find one—for example, when we take our bedding to the laundromat.
I’ve played—and enjoyed—the Wii a few times, but don’t want one of my own badly enough to justify the investment. So my idea of “video games” these days is a rousing round of Free Cell or Kyodai Mahjongg.
I think I would freak if I wasn’t connected (phone/laptop/Desktop). It’s funny how 10 years ago, that would not have even crossed my mind!
Old school nintendo is where it’s at!
ooh… some great recommendations from TJ’s I’ll have to add the orange chicken and almond butter to my list!
I am totally a Pokemon child, but I also have a soft spot for all Mario games, especially Mario Kart, Super Smash Bros. and Mario Party! I was also obsessed w/ James Bond and Diddy Kong Racing, although those were the games I begged my friends to play when I spent the night!
Sounds like such a fun night, aside from trying to fix the blog!
I loved Nintendo as a kid – Mario, Donkey Kong and Zelda were my favorites! Now we have a Wii and I LOVE playing Mario kart and the new Super Mario Brothers with the hubs or my son. The new Mario game is so addicting and you can play up to 4 players at a time! The New Super Mario on DS is a lot of fun too! My son asks me to pass the “hard parts” for him and I happily oblige!
Glad you got your site fixed-it was down all day when I checked. LOL on the Nintendo. I can’t believe I wasted that many hours on Mario:) Sounds like you had a fun and relaxing night.
I love the blow on the game technique! I loved Sonic growing up- I had sega:)
LOVE classic nintendo! I got an ex-boyfriend Duck Hunt for his birthday one year…the best!!
Fun! Never played video games as a kid. They literally weren’t invented until I was in 7th or 8th grade, I think, so never had the opportunity. Now of course there was the huge pac-man arcade machine at a local restaurant but only touched that once or twice due to my parents not wanting to hand out any quarters–ever. Now my boys play and I don’t even know how to turn the thing on. It’s a whole scary mystery to me and I’ve officially turned into my mother!
Your post brought a smile to my face — seriously, blowing on the game, wiggling it, success!! I loved Super Mario Brothers and Donkey Kong!!
How was TJs in WDM?? Was it packed!?
I can’t believe you have an original Nintendo, that’s so cool!
I was a Sega Mega Drive girl myself, and was obssessed with Sonic the Hedgehog!
I couldn’t have had less of a game-y childhood if I’d tried…I had THE original gameboy (not even the gameboy color – I’m talkin the brick-sized black and white doohickey). I’m terrible, don’t even know how to turn on a playstation :/
haha oh my – what fun!!!!
LOL! Awesome! I remember we weren’t allowed to have a Nintendo when I was a kid… (everyone was getting them back in Christmas 87′, I felt so left out…). However, I managed to play it at friends’ houses. Gosh kids don’t really how lucky they are now to be able to *save* games. Remember the feeling of running out of lives and having to go back to LEVEL ONE and play that puppy all the way through all over again??? YIKES! The-blow-on-the-cartridge-trick. Hehe! I remember my friend and I taking turns blowing on the Mario III cartridge so hard once that we were actually out of breath and the stupid game still wouldn’t play correctly!!! That breakfast sounds awesome. I’ve already decided tomorrow that I’m having a whole-grain waffle… smothered in 1/2 a raspberry chobani and sprinkled with chia seeds. Then you eat it like a cookie…totally IGE-inspired. Yum!
I played Super Nintendo growing up, too! Mario Cart and Super Mario Brothers, all the way! I also really loved Legend of Zelda.
The quest continues.
I think my parents still have the system w/games. Fun date night idea – games, beer, Chinese!! Now I just need the boy….
My internet went out yesterday as well. It was hard to cope. I check facebook and email pretty much obsessively.
Funny! I went to TJ’s on Friday as well and tried out the orange chicken demo. THEN we were lazy and ordered Chinese on Saturday night and I got orange chicken and the first thing that I told my fiancé was “This is NOT as good as Trader Joe’s.”
Video games! LOVE! I think that we have about every gaming console known to man. My fav. will always be old school Mario Kart. Everybody knows that before the Wii came along, you were STILL moving the controller to make your karts change direction!
How do you cut your apples like that!?
So funny – my nephews (8 and 5) came to visit this weekend and they brought an old school Nintendo. My husband was in HEAVEN. How crazy is it that these games are over 20 years old?!
Mario + Donkey Kong + Zelda = Happiness
Love this post!! I have a Nintendo buried somewhere in my house. Last time I tried to get it to work about a year ago, it was a total fail. It doesn’t work anymore, and it’s so disappointing. I spent hours devoted to that little gadget. My favs were Mario Brothers, Mario Brother 2, and Knock Out.
Memories!!
[...] so we popped in to grab a super quick, super yummy dinner we tried a couple weekends ago during beer and Nintendo night – Orange [...]
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