Merry Christmas!

MERRY CHRISTMAS to everyone!

We are spending Christmas in Kansas City with Kevin's dad's side of the family. We drove up on Thursday - its a fairly easy drive, but a long one! We spent all day in the car, its definitely the furthest road trip we've been on together and we realized its the first time our truck has left Texas.

Friday morning we woke up to it snowing outside, a great site to watch while we ate breakfast. Unfortunately the snow didn't stay around for long, but we got some photos of it and enjoyed watching it fall.

We've been able to see all of Kevin's side of the family - we especially enjoyed seeing his cousin's little boys, see Christmas through kids' eyes is very magical, and reminds us of our own childhood -- I haven't thought of playdough in years...

Christmas, Christmas time of year

Our holiday parties have already started! Yesterday we went to Kevin's aunt's house to celebrate with his entire side of the family. We had a great time - watched the kids open their gifts, had our white elephant gift exchange, visited with everyone and ate way too much food.

I think the big kids (Kevin and his cousins -- all age 30+) had more fun with the foam guns then the little kids they were given to! It may be an idea for the white elephant for next year :)

I love my white elephant gift - a Houston Texans snuggie. I've made fun of them since they came out, and I know that last year was the year of the snuggie but I am often slow to pick up on fads and I stand corrected - I used it last night while we watched a movie, and it is great - keeps me warm and my arms are free! Now I just have to keep Kevin and Smokey from claiming it as their own!

Its a busy time of year, we have another gathering today and a party on Tuesday night, and we'll celebrate with my side of the family after Christmas. Hope everyone else is having a wonderful Christmas season!!

I brought this layered greek dip to the party. Its a recipe I got from my friend who got it from her mother-in-law, and it is SO good.

8 oz block of cream cheese or neufatel cheese

juice of one lemon

1 tbsp of Italian Seasoning

Hummus (make your own or store bought) - (my notes: I made mine)

medium cucumber

chopped tomato (about a cup) – (my notes: used 2 tomatoes)

kalamata olives or black olives (1/4 or 1/2 cup) – (my notes: buy sliced NOT chopped)

chopped green onions (about 1/2 cup)

feta cheese (1/4 or 1/2 cup)

Let the cream cheese soften for about 30 minutes or so at room temperature. Mix with lemon juice and italian seasoning. Then layer. First Cream cheese, then hummus, then cucumber, tomato, olives, green onion, and feta. Serve with pita chips or cucumbers.

Hummus recipe -- I use a recipe that doesn't call for tahini so I can use things we usually have around the house, and think it tastes just fine :)

I do think it tastes better if its made the night before, so I made it the night before and refrigerated, it seems to 'mellow' the cumin flavor.

1 can garbanzo beans/chickpeas
1/4 cup olive oil
1 tablespoon lemon juice
1 teaspoon cumin

In a food processor, blend all ingredients together until smooth and creamy.

Product Review

It is long overdue, but I've finally done the product review I'd mentioned earlier.

I used my gift certificate to buy shoes from CSN stores - they were super cute (black, mary jane style), but even though they are my usual size when I got them they were too big so I had to send them back. CSN's service department was really easy to work with, which was a relief since
I HATE having to return things, especially online. I just filled out a form online saying why I needed to return it and had a mailing label emailed to me. I was able to pack it back into the original box and send it back via UPS, at no cost to me - hooray!

This experience confirmed why I don't buy shoes (or clothes) online - I need to be able to try them on to make sure they fit how I want them to. I'm still amazed that Kevin can just pull a shirt or pair of pants off the shelf and buy it without needing to try it on. I did consider ordering the next smaller size of the same style of shoes, but decided not to push my luck - I'll stick with buying shoes in person. Instead, I bought some kitchen items. loooove kitchen items.

I bought a gravy separator (I call it a fat separator) and am waiting until I get a chance to use it. I wish I'd had this item at Thanksgiving! We had Thanksgiving at our house so when we worked on breaking down the turkey, we didn't have all of the items we usually have at my parents' house. My dad and I went to TWO different stores trying to find a gravy separator without success. We had to settle for a plastic cup and poked a small hole in it, its not pretty but it worked. Next time I'll use this item - it has a strainer on the top to make sure only the liquids get into the cup and the spout is at the bottom so that the fat floats to the top and you can pour the broth off from the bottom. I love the way this one looks - it reminds me of the glassware from chemistry lab.

I also bought a melon baller, I love watermelon and cantaloupe and love the way that melon balls look.....mmmm melon, almost makes me ready for spring (almost). I did try to use the melon baller the other night when I was making spinach balls, but the baller is too small to use for that purpose, oh well it will work well for melon. I have a great melon salad recipe that it will come in very handy for, and they look so much cuter as balls then as cubes - making CUTE food is a valid argument for kitchen tools.

While I was ordering from CSN, I went ahead and got a second garlic press for my dad. I love the one I got so much, and he used it at Thanksgiving and said its better than the one he has at home. I have found that it works better if I go ahead and peel the garlic - that way the skin doesn't get stuck in the place where you put the full clove, but it does work either way. I love getting to be LAZY and still having fresh pressed garlic.

Wrapped house

On Saturday morning, I looked out the window to see that our house got wrapped overnight. My first thought was s%$, I really needed one more thing to do this morning. and where was our fearless guard dog? He must've slept right through it, because we didn't hear a peep from him all night. Guard dog fail!

Its the first time our house has been wrapped, but probably won't be the last. I have to think we're the perfect target because - since we don't have kids - we're unlikely to find out who did it and won't 'return the favor'. Toilet paper is harmless fun, at least it wasn't eggs...

Looking at it a little bit more I realized whoever did it, did a pretty good job - we were tempted to leave it up (could we call it our Christmas decorations?), but figured the HOA wouldn't look too kindly on it.

Clean-up was easier than I thought it would be, we just dragged out the trashcan and picked it all up off the ground and from the low parts of the trees. One of our neighbors even came over with his little boy and helped us to clean up, really nice of him to do that, and it gave us the opportunity to meet them. A couple of neighborhood girls also came over to help - they had fun trying to lift each other up to get the TP out of the trees. One of them mentioned that their PTA will 'flamingo' a person's yard as a fundraiser - 300 plastic flamingos in a person's yard, glad THAT didn't happen!

The people who did it used the good stuff, I think it was nicer than what I buy for the house, and they used a lot of it - we found 9 rolls scattered around the yard. If the parents didn't know about it, they were in for quite a surprise when a full package of good TP disappeared overnight.

Seeing the toilet paper in the trees reminded me of when I went to a slumber party and we wrapped the birthday girl's next door neighbor's house. My parents' house also got wrapped several times. I spent more than one morning helping clean up the mess. Kevin said it never happened to his house growing up!

Anyone else remember wrapping a house or cleaning up their wrapped house?

Here are a few photos.

I try really hard not to be materialistic, but have to say I LOVE my new phone! Our contract was finally up on our phones, and since I was ready to throw mine out the window we went last weekend to pick out new phones.

We've been using blackberries that we got when Kevin's work wanted him to get one. Another job and a semester of school later, we were finally able to get rid of them for some FUN phones.

Its amazing the difference of what you can do on a phone made for fun vs one made for keeping up with work. I still don't know how to work all the features on the phone, and have made a couple of oopsy phone calls (and not known how to STOP the phone call once), but we're having fun learning them, and I LOVE that since we both got the same phone anytime one of us figures something out we can show the other one....really helps to make it easier to learn the phone :)

Song critic

We love music and love to listen to the radio and to CDs (and in Kevin's case, records) at home.

A while back we noticed that a certain song would make our dog howl and howl. Recently, the list of songs that make him howl is getting longer, and its to the point where we can't even listen to the song because it sounds so sad I just have to turn it off. Here are the songs so far:

the first: "Let it Die" by the Foo Fighters At first we joked that he must've been a Kurt Cobain fan and was in mourning

Add to that:

"Break" by Three Days Grace its the song with the lyrics, "at night I feel like a vampire" (what does that even mean?)

"You're Going Down" by Sick Puppies <-- this one is the worst, and he starts howling before I even recognize

the song there may be one more, but those are the big three

Is he trying to tell us he's a country fan?

The worst was when we were in the car and one of the songs came on, he already cries in the car and add to it the song, poor Smokey Sometime we need to video it so you can see how bad it really is, or win money with America's Funniest Home Videos. I can't believe that show is still on the air, I see commercials for 4-hour blocks of it, I can watch it for a bit but no way could I take crotch shots and falls for 4-hours..

Spiced Shrimp With Green Beans and Lime

This year is flying by, tomorrow is DECEMBER, weren't we all just trying to figure out new year's resolutions? Its been a good year for us, in some ways I'm sad to see it end but am looking forward to what 2011 has in store for us!

We haven't been very good at trying new recipes lately, but tried this one from Real Simple magazine and really liked it! We followed the recipe pretty closely, anytime I can get a vegetable into a main dish its a win-win to me!

Spiced Shrimp With Green Beans and Lime

• 1 cup white rice
• 1/2 cup fresh cilantro
• 2 tablespoons olive oil
• 1/2 pound green beans, halved crosswise
• 4 cloves garlic, chopped
• 1 to 2 jalapeno peppers, thinly sliced
• kosher salt and black pepper
• 1 1/2 pounds shrimp
• 1 1/2 teaspoons chili powder
• 1/4 cup lime juice

Directions

1. Cook the rice according to the package directions. Fluff with a fork and fold in the cilantro.
2. Meanwhile, heat the oil in a large skillet over medium-high heat.
3. Add the green beans, garlic, jalapeños, and ¼ teaspoon each salt and black pepper. Cook, tossing frequently, for 3 minutes.
4. Season the shrimp with the chili powder, ½ teaspoon salt, and ¼ teaspoon black pepper and add to the skillet.
5. Cook, tossing occasionally, until opaque throughout, 3 to 5 minutes. Stir in the lime juice and serve over the rice.

Happy Thanksgiving!!!

We have had a great day with my side of the family. We started the day with homemade waffles, and then had a Thanksgiving feast - ham and turkey, and all the trimmings. My new green bean recipe was no good, but everything else was wonderful, and we had a good time working together to make all of the food.

We used our good china and sat at our new dining room table :). Our first time to host a Thanksgiving is a success!

This evening a cold front came through, making it a great night to stay in and play cards and watch football.

Thanksgiving

Today is my last day of work for the week. :) I am taking tomorrow off to get ready for Thanksgiving, and for the first time ever we're hosting at our house. We are so excited!!

We'd originally wanted to have both sides of the family over - with our 8-person table we finally have room for all of the adults. There were some plan changes so it will only be my side of the family, and it will still be a great time. It will be a bit strange not having my brother and his wife with us, but we are so thankful he found a great job for himself and with technology (voice over IP) we are able to talk to him fairly regularly, making it easier.

My parents are bringing a few dishes, and we making a few dishes for our feast. It makes it easier on everyone to split it up. I'm hoping that all of the dishes turn out ok, we're making some of our staples - turkey, cranberries, sweet potatoes - and trying some new dishes - mashed potatoes from scratch (I usually use a box), and a new green been recipe.

I hope everyone has a Happy Thanksgiving, and remember all that we should be thankful for this year and every year. I love Thanksgiving and hate that it always gets overshadowed by Christmas preparations. I am guilty of it too, I found a couple of Christmas gifts while I was out running errands last weekend, this is THE earliest I've ever started shopping. The rest of this week I will enjoy being with family and really taking time out to see all that we have to be thankful for.

Kevin is back in school and couldn't be happier. It makes me very happy to see him doing something he enjoys and also reminds me just how much work school can be when I get that thought in my head thinking maybe I should go back.

I can get my fix by helping Kevin with his program. This weekend I read one of his papers before he turned it in and last week I read a book review he'd had to write for one of his other classes. It helps him because I can find a few small errors that he won't see because he's read it over so many times, and it helps me to better understand what he's studying (I also get to learn a little bit about history in the process). I know he's reading all the time and writing lots of papers, but realized I'm not really sure what he's studying. I pick up books for him at the library and get lost in the TITLES of some of them. It is also very easy to tell in our book piles which are "Carol books" and which are "Kevin books".

We refer to his classes by a shortened version of the names. His 3 classes this semester are: British, Texas, and History of Darwinism. The first two are pretty self-explanatory, the third one I'm still trying to understand. No matter how much or how little I understand of what he's studying, he's loving it - and from the feedback he gets from his professors doing very well at it!

This year, in addition to what I'm always thankful for - good health, family, friends - I am thankful that we found a program that he enjoys and that we are at a place in our lives where he could quit his job to pursue his studies.

You know you're an adult when..

...you set up a safe deposit box. We've been needing to get one for a while, but never took the time to do it until Saturday. I'll feel better having some of our 'important papers' out of the house. I know I've been an adult for quite some time now, but certain projects and paperwork bring it home more than others.

Ren Fest and Rockets

Its a bit late, but here's my recap of our fun-filled weekend last weekend. I really wish I'd had the extra hour of sleep, but will try to make good use of it when we go off DST this weekend. I will miss the light in the evenings but am glad to not get up and head to work in the DARK!

The weather finally turned cooler and more like fall so we took the opportunity to go to the Texas Renaissance Festival. You have to stay flexible on the dates you can go and luckily my sister's schedule was flexible too so we made the trek out there (with a Shipley's stop on the way), and had a great day. The main thing I wanted to do while we were there was to see the birds of prey show, and we were able to see it. It was a great show - entertaining and educational, I cannot believe how acrobatic some of the birds are. Most of the birds were rescued so hearing how they came to be part of the show was an interesting addition to the show. One of the first birds we saw looked like it was going to hunt some live squirrels rather than the bag the handler had, I was worried we (and the kids around us) were going to get a real education on how mother nature works, but luckily for us it finally went for the bag it is trained to get. The handler told us the squirrels have been caught before, but since these birds were raised in captivity they don't know what to do with them....lucky for the squirrels! After the show we wandered around some more, shopped a bit, and got lost in the maze (annoying teenage girls - I do NOT need you to tell me how to get out, I paid my money to be lost in the maze for a bit and you yelling at me to 'turn left' is just annoying).

My sister tried out one of the games you could play - quite a bit of physics to it!

I also got my empanada fix...mmmm

Once we were worn out (and dusty - its so dry!) we headed back home.

Laura and I changed clothes really quickly and headed back out again - this time to the ROCKETS home opener! Unfortunately they didn't win (and haven't had a win yet), but we had a great time, even got a free t-shirt! They had cardboard cut-outs of the players that you could take photos with, I barely come up to Yao's ELBOW!

Sunday was much more low-key, since we were worn out from all the fun on Saturday. We made homemade chili and handed out candy to trick-or-treaters. Rather than get up and down all night long to get the door, we just sat on the driveway to hand out candy, the weather was great and it was much more pleasant to do it that way.

Birthday celebrations keep going

Kevin says that girls like to celebrate their birthdays for at least a week, and I can't really disagree because I DID celebrate my birthday all of last week. Halloween was the end of my birthday week (and the month in which my birthday falls), but I've found a way to continue celebrating. CSN stores has asked that I do another product review. I am so excited, I get a $35 gift certificate to use on an item from one of their 200+ stores(!). They have everything from contemporary coffee tables to shoes and handbags and everything in between.

I've hosted giveaways for them previously, and did a product review several months ago. I am still loving the kitchen items we bought from CSN for my last product review - the garlic press is my favorite, no more peeling garlic cloves for this girl!

I am planning to get something for me, the shoes are calling my name, and will post a review - be on the lookout for it!

I'll also post a recap of my full-of-fun busy weekend, lots of excitement.

Tonight we'll be watching the Houston Texans play in Monday Night Football! BEAT THE COLTS!

I love birthdays!

I love my birthday. I received so many birthday wishes on facebook - it made my day to open my email and see so many messages from people wishing me a happy birthday.

I took today as a vacation day for my birthday, and it was the BEST idea!

I took advantage of the time off to drive down and spend time with my parents - this also helped Kevin by giving him a quiet house to work on his presentation for class. We had a great time visiting and catching up, and I spent the night Sunday night. Today I slept in and then had waffles for breakfast (never too old to get spoiled by your parents).

My parents' house has really bad cellphone coverage, which is often frustrating to deal with (having to go upstairs to get a signal), but for wanting a day off and to visit with them and not be distracted by facebook, twitter, etc. its really nice, Plus work knows they really can't contact me, so i truly get a day off.

I drove back home this evening and went out to eat with Kevin, and then we got dessert at Culver's -- I wanted a 'cement mixer' instead of a cake, its exactly what I wanted. Ice cream in October sounds strange, but it has been so warm this year that it is the perfect dessert......chocolate custard with brownie pieces and raspberries...yum!

Halloween Costumes

We had a great time last night. Not many people could make it to the party (busy time of year), but it gave us a chance to just hang out and catch up with Jay, Gwendolyn and Sarah. and we were able to see Gabriel dressed up as the CUTEST astronaut I've ever seen! (kicking myself for not taking his picture).

I did get a photo of Kevin and I in our costumes, he was a deranged dentist (with pliers as his tool of choice) and I was a housecat (living the easy life!). We had fun with the costumes, each was a mix of purchased things and things we already had. My collar was a pendant I own on a ribbon ($1 at michael's), and I used eye-liner for the whiskers and we used spray blood for Kevin - it looked disgusting when it came out of the bottle. The goggles are his weedwhacker safety goggles. Sorry about the photo quality, I didn't have the settings right on my camera so it didn't flash - I've had the camera long enough I should know how to work it, but obviously I don't....this is why Kevin usually is in charge of the photo-taking in our household.

I cannot wait to see all the kids in our neighborhood and what they came up with for their costumes!!

Halloween

Halloween is coming up soon - even though the weather doesn't feel much like it. I love this holiday, and our neighborhood goes ALL OUT - i even saw some inflatable decorations in yards this morning. I stocked up on candy at the store this morning, with all the kids in our neighborhood we should have LOTS of trick-or-treaters.

We're headed to a costume party tonight, Gwendolyn, Jay and Sarah are having their annual party. It should be fun, and afterwards I hope to have some photos to share of us in our costumes. For the party, they wanted childhood photos of us in costumes, so my mom was nice enough to find some photos of my brother and I. Costumes really have come a long way since we were kids. The ones we had were a mask (which was tough to see out of) and a plastic shirt that you'd tie onto yourself. I highly doubt they were flame retardant. I wonder if kids would even be allowed to wear the costumes we wore...

1981: a clown and Daffy Duck. I think we still own those jack-o-lanterns that we used for all of our candy!
1982: a princess and a pirate (sounds like a movie title)While I was out shopping recently, I saw Halloween decorations and Christmas decorations right next to each other, and thought it was quite a strange combination to see witches and skeletons right next to Santa. Stores - let us enjoy the fall season without pushing us towards Christmas, we'll get there soon enough!!!

We finally made it to a festival! We made a quick trip to the Italian Festival yesterday afternoon, quite a treat since Kevin spends a good chunk of each weekend working on his classes. The festival was on the campus of our alma mater, the place looked completely different with all of the food and drink tents, stages, and booths. I hadn't realized how much the campus has changed since I left. Several times I found myself looking at an empty lot and wondering what happened to the building that used to be there.. Most of the changes are for the better, but I miss the houses that were there when I first started as an undergrad.

At the festival we watched the kids' grape stomp (their commentary and description of how it felt was hilarious), and enjoyed some Italian donuts (yum!) It was fun, even though it was warmer than I would've liked.

Did you miss me?

I'd like to say I've been doing all sorts of wonderful, important things...but really I think I'm just sucked into the new season of tv shows being on again! Our DVR gets a workout and we actually have to plan out when we want to watch what, example: Fringe is on Thursday, but we don't watch it until Friday because we watch all of the Thursday comedies on Thursday. Luckily its not so popular that I have to work too hard to avoid spoilers.

We're watching a few new shows but the jury is still out on most of them. Mostly I'm glad to have my existing favorite shows back again. The new shows aren't doing very well when I heard that two have alreaady been cancelled, oh well each of them sounded bad and weren't ones I was watching.

Our recent discovery - stuffingless dog toys. How did I not know they existed? We saw them at Petsmart and got one that looks like a squirrel since he is always so interested in the squirrels in our neighborhood. He LOVES it, he's always playing with it and even figured out how to carry it in his mouth all bunched up so it doesn't drag on the ground. Not sure how long it will last, but its already made it one week. I'm amazed he loves it because he's usually iffy with toys, except for his indestructible bone (he chews on it every night after dinner).

Smokey's big news - he killed a mouse last week. I'm glad I missed it. I think the poor thing died of fright.

Giveaway Winner

Congrats to Allison, she is my giveaway winner!

Thanks to all who entered.

Artwork search success!

You really do find things when you aren't looking for them. We'd been looking for artwork to hang in the dining room without success. We'd been wanting to find something since we got the table, back in July. It is a HUGE wall and so we wanted a really large piece to hang there or several coordinating pieces, but had not found anything we liked that was large enough and at a price we were willing to pay.

Yesterday Kevin dragged me to the mall. We were looking for a Texans sticker for his truck (which we found) and some other sports stuff (which we did not find). We walked into the mall and realized we'd parked on the opposite end of the mall from the store we really wanted to go to. I was annoyed we had done that, but we wouldn't have found the artwork if we hadn't done that - one of those 'happy accidents' or dumb luck as my dad calls it. It was in a close-out store, it looks like its going out of business, but the signs are just to get your attention because they are also hiring. We looked at all of the artwork, and finally decided on one we liked.

My sister stopped by later in the day, and we put her to work helping us put it up on the wall. Good thing she was there, because we needed an extra pair of hands. the painting is HUGE, over 4 1/2 feet wide. Using all of the tools we have - stud finder, level, T-square, stepladder, hammer, nails - and some improvised tools, a mop handle to test whether the hangers we'd put up were level (now I see why people own yardsticks), we got it up on the wall, and it looks good!

No more huge, blank wall....and now we can start to think about accessories and curtains, now that we have some colors to plan off of.

Tour de Pink

My sister and I road the 12-mile route in today's charity bike ride for Tour de Pink! This is without a doubt the longest bike ride I've ever been on. We've been signed up for it since June and I'd trained for it - I must be honest, I'm not really sure how to train for it other than to just ride my bike, so that was my 'training'. Kevin had figured out a good bike route through our neighborhood and I drove it once to measure how long it is. It was right at 4 miles, so I've ridden that route a bunch of times, and ridden it twice to do 8 miles at a time but that was as high as I'd gotten. I was a little bit worried that I wouldn't be able to do the full 12 miles or that I'd have bike troubles, but it went really well. The hardest part was the HILLS! I got up each of the small hills finally, and loved the downhill.....I have a new respect for anyone who rides a bike in hilly areas.

We were able to ride together most of the ride, and enjoyed seeing the people who were dressed up - pink boas and pink hair EVERYWHERE. Charity and fun rides are definitely my speed more than the competitive ones, everyone was very helpful (the people parked next to us took the photo for us after we let them use our suncreen) and just out to have fun.

I will definitely participate in this ride again, maybe even plan for one of the longer routes. Thanks Laura for participating! I wouldn't have done it without you....

The rest of the day will be spent watching football and taking it easy....

Another Giveaway

I am still loving my cutting board and garlic press from CSN stores. My only regret is that we've been so busy lately I haven't gotten to use them as much as I'd like. With Kevin back in school and me in the busiest time of the year at work, cooking has taken a backseat for now, but we'll get plenty of use out of them.

I'm pleased to be able to offer another giveaway, this time for $35 to use at any one of CSN's stores. With over 200 stores, there is something for everyone from a coffee table to an outdoor grill!

Please leave a comment to be entered. Deadline to enter is Saturday, September 25. I'll draw the winner on Sunday, September 26.

Good luck!

Football is back

NFL football is back! I'm writing this as I watch the Texans game on tv. Kevin is at the game with his parents. They've been season ticket holders since before I met him. I'll never be as big a fan as he is, but have definitely become a fan in our 6 years together. Funny thing, in my family the football fan is my mom, not my dad.

Its been a good game so far, and I hope they can hold onto their lead and BEAT THE COLTS! I have no doubt that Kevin will lose his voice from all of his yelling and cheering at the game, but it will be worth it.

In addition to watching football, we play fantasy football, and I realized that Kevin's team name has come true. He's called his team the "Arrogant Scholars" for the last couple of years and he finally is getting to be a scholar (but not an arrogant one). He's loving his classes, and I'm glad its him and NOT me who is doing all of the reading, I'll take my beach reads...

Cellphone kid

A couple of weeks ago when I came out of my house to leave for work I saw a kid riding his bike to school. I thought how cute, until I saw that he was on a cellphone. I saw him again today, and again he was on a cellphone. I have to wonder who can a kid that young talk to on the phone at 7am and also shouldn't he be paying attention to where he's riding? I know there are good reasons for a kid to have a cellphone, but I find myself wondering how kids will relate to each other when they are constantly 'plugged in' to everything. Yes, I see the irony as I type this on my blog...

I definitely have turned the corner away from young and have had more than one 'back in my day' moments. When and how does it happen? Don't get me wrong, I love where I am in my life I just wonder when I stopped being young....

One more soapbox moment, I was watching an episode of Glee last night and they said they were going to sing a classic rock song. I was ready for something from the '70s, but then they started to sing "One" by U2. When did U2 become classic rock? I had to look it up, it came out in 1991....I guess 'classic' is anything that came out before they were born. I'll be listening to all 'classic' rock before too long...

Review #2

I finally used my garlic press and I love it! I didn't have to peel the garlic, just put the bulb into the well, pushed it together and boom - squishy, yummy garlic. I am sure I'll still chop garlic for certain recipes, just depending on how it is needed but will get a lot of use out of this, and save myself from needlessly peeling a bunch of garlic cloves.

Hooray, love my purchases from CSN stores.

I was able to talk to my brother last night! They are getting settled into their new place in Nicaragua for his new job, and he worked his first day on Friday. He sounded happier than I've heard him in a LONG time.

They were able to SURPRISE his wife's family. They knew he got a job, but had assumed it was in Austin, TX and had no idea that it would put my brother and wife only a few hours away. I can only imagine the surprise, disbelief, and excitement that must've happened when they pulled off the surprise. It was quite a secret to keep. I'll definitely miss having them only a few hours away, but with the wonders of technology we should be able to talk to them somewhat regularly and know this is the right place for them to be for now.

He'll be busy learning his new job, and get lots of practice with Spanish. He said he had to ask MJ (wife) to speak English on his lunch break Friday so that his brain could rest.

Review

I received the items I bought from CSN, hooray! I actually received them last week, I'm just slow on coming back and writing a review. I decided to get two smaller items rather than one big item with the gift certificate, which means - double the reviews!

This was the first time I've ordered from CSN, so I was pleased that the items came very quickly, I had received both items within a week of ordering them.

The first item I bought was an Epicurean cutting board. I know you are thinking (my hypothetical readers) - a cutting board? could you be more boring? but it is exactly what I needed. Aside as to WHY I needed a new cutting board - I had cut THROUGH one of the ones we had when using our scary sharp knife to cut corn on the cob and found it worked best if I really slammed it down (with all fingers well out of the way), it cut the cob great but also cut the board, it was a flimsy one anyway. So having to retire that cutting board and having only one other flimsy one and a HUGE one that is reserved for cutting meat, meant I needed a new one. I like that this one is more sturdy and has the magic words for me *dishwasher safe*. I was a bit concerned that it says it is "Constructed from paper" but have found it to be fairly sturdy. It does seem to get stained easily, but with a little scrubbing it has come off. I love the handle cut-out, so I can easily hold onto the cutting board when I pick it up to push what I've cut onto a bowl, plate, etc. That is a unique feature compared with most cutting boards I've had. Anything that makes my life easier in the kitchen is a WIN for me. Bonus - it is made in the USA, rare in my shopping experience.

The other item I bought should also make cooking easier. I bought a Calphalon garlic peel and press. I'll have to review it later since we actually haven't used it yet. We had the *perfect* opportunity to try it out, but forgot we had it. It is supposed to peel the garlic for you as you press it through, which would make my life easier and make me oh so happy, I hate peeling garlic. I had wanted one since BOTH cooking classes I attended used one and can't wait to try out this one. I'll keep it in mind when I make our menu out for the week. Stay tuned....

If you'd be interested in hosting a giveaway or doing a review, let me know and I can send you the contact information of the woman I've worked with. It was the first time I shopped with CSN but will not be the last.

tv premieres

A lot of people look forward to football coming back in the fall, and I do to a point but mostly I look forward to the cooler weather and the return of must-see tv! The summer reruns and the summer shows are just a bummer - Persons Unknown, I'm sorry but you did not answer ANY of my questions and I hated Janet whom everyone else on the show seemed to just love.

In college I had a roommate who would put the season premieres of shows into her calendar. We thought she was crazy to do it, but I am finding myself looking up when my shows start, which is not a far stretch from actually calendaring it! Part of me feels bad for how much tv I know I'll be watching, but eh....I work hard, I get my stuff done and if I want to veg out in front of the tv so be it. I do love my DVR so I can skip the commercials and watch the show on my schedule, and tv shows getting tricky with whether or not the show is coming back from commercial - don't think we don't notice! DVR has made my life so much easier, I remember not that long ago having the VHS tapes to try to tape something and trying to remember which ones I'd watched and just having a headache over it all, but now its all in that little box with the menu to show me what is on there. and my DVR is going ot get a workout the week of September 20th!!!

I found this great link that has the schedule of when all of the shows premiere, hooray!

The shows I'm most excited about: Big Bang theory (wish it was still on Mondays!), Fringe, and Modern Family.

What will you be watching this fall?

what a weekend

We had a great weekend. My whole family came over on Saturday so that we could spend some time together before my brother and his wife move later this week. I'm very glad it worked out for everyone to come over since they have been very busy getting ready for the big move - they leave in 2 days! It will be quite a while before all 7 of us are able to get together again. My brother already has a plane ticket to come back for a visit in February, but that is a long way away and will be just him not him and the wife. They are very excited about the move and I know just ready for it to be over so they can get settled and get started in the new job and new surroundings. They did find a renter for their house and a new home for their kitties, big relief for both...

We had a great meal (fajitas) at our new table - wonderful to have a table that we can all sit at at the same time! funniest moment, realizing the table is so long that from one end you didn't know what food was at the other end - my dad on one end didn't know there was shredded cheese on our end. After lots of passing back and forth, I think everyone got what they needed and we had quite a feast!

After dinner, my brother surprised us with a project he's been working on - digitizing home videos that my parents had recorded when we were kids! what a great gift to give us, they are so funny to watch - especially hearing the voices of our much younger selves, and in the birthday video trying to pick out who is who over 20 years ago, most of the videos are 1984-1986. Youtube wasn't cooperating so there were lots of stops and starts, but we were able to see most of them and will get to see them for years to come.

Today is exactly one year since we moved into our house!

I hate Comcast...the latest reason, they changed a lot of the channels around (example: NBC moved from 312 to 612) and while they gave us plenty of notice (which I appreciate) they did NOT make any effort to move the recordings I have set up. It left nearly all of my scheduled recordings out there set to record absolutely nothing. I don't think it would've been that hard to build some sort of program to update the recordings, or something we could run...if the channel is in this list of now obsolete channels update the scheduled recording to the new number. I am NOT a programmer by any means, so if I know what the logic should be then they should REALLY know....oh well. I cleared off our recordings this morning and updated what I could, most of the shows don't come back until September and if I miss one, well...probably better off spending less time in front of the tv.....I was sort of disgusted at myself when I listed all the shows I want to record.

We had a good time at Kevin's orientation this morning. They didn't tell me what a bearkat is (I found some pictures online - the real animal is called a bearcat), but we did get a lot of good information about the services available to him as a graduate student. We also met his faculty advisor, who is also the professor for one of his classes. Going to the event made it more real for both of us that he's going back to school, and we're both so excited for him to start! Seeing all the tools and services they have ALMOST makes me want to go back to school, ALMOST...I am pretty sure I'm done with school.

Dreamin

My subconscious needs to realize it is KEVIN going back to school and not me. Last night I had another dream that I was back in classes again, and it is never just classes...no, its classes and tests I haven't prepared for. The dreams never make any sense. For example this time I had to take down a tent that was attached to my car (why I don't know, apparently I went to school in the woods). The fact they don't make any sense should help me realize that its a dream, but I never seem to. Here's hoping for better dreams tonight.

Working at a university, I've always been very aware of when its back-to-school time, and my work calendar revolves around the school year. I also see all my teacher friends lamenting the end of summer on their facebook accounts. I'll be glad when the dreams go away, and ready for summer to end so that cooler weather will be on its way!

PS food court where I work, just because the students aren't here (any actually many of them are already back) doesn't mean there aren't staff who want to eat, quit CLOSING everything for weeks at a time!!! Last week I went down there to grab some lunch and only one place was open. Its a sad state of affairs when you are SAD that Taco bell isn't open.....

like Christmas in August

A while back, I held a giveaway for a gift certificate to CSN stores. I've been approached by them again and this time will be doing a product review. I'm so excited - I get to pick something out and look forward to the box arriving at my front door.The hard part is going to be to decide WHAT to get, with over 200 stores they have something for everyone, from bistro sets and outdoor grills to all sorts of kitchen items, and purses (my weakness).

I want to get something we can both use (which means purses are out), and since I'm always needing help in the kitchen will probably get something from that store. Stayed tuned for my product review!

Left Handed

It can be so frustrating being left-handed sometimes. Just this morning, while doing my new Wii workout game, I realized again how much almost everything is geared towards right-handed people. The game always wants me to put the controller in my right hand and the nun-chuck in my left, but just the opposite is what I always want to do. Playing tennis was especially hard because they again assume the motion takes place in the right hand, I could just do the reverse of what they say (do forehand when they say backhand), but its confusing enough for me to FOLLOW the directions, much less reverse them in my mind while keeping up with it.

It got me thinking again about some of the other things I've had a hard time with being left-handed (and growing up in a family of right-handed people):

• I could never get the scissors at Sunday school to work, the one pair that said lefty didn't work for anything. I don't think I ever finished the projects requiring us to cut things out.
  
• The desks that have the chair and desktop together were ALL made for right-handed people, I'd have to contort myself to be able to write on them. no wonder my handwriting is so bad
• eating with others, I really do always have to get at the end of the table so I don't bump elbows the entire time. I have a magnet that says "being left handed means always sitting at the end of the table"...so true!
• learning to do the many things (throw ball, cut food, the list goes on and on) that require you to use your dominant hand. is it any wonder I do some things right-handed?
• trying to drive a stick-shift, ugh...I was a lost cause
  

I did a google dive and it turns out I just missed Left Hander's day - it was yesterday, Aug 13, who knew?? That same website has scissors, maybe I'll find myself a pair, or buy some real good left-handed scissors to give to the Sunday school, they probably have those same ones.....

It does make me quite aware of other left-handed people, I catch myself looking to see if anyone else is when I'm in a class, a meeting, or other surroundings where people are writing....

Honda, silly Honda

My car got an unexpected gift yesterday, a new battery. I will admit I don't take notice of everything about my car as much as I should, but I did not see any warning signs until it simply wouldn't start after running an errand yesterday. Luckily I was close to the house (I'd been all over town earlier in the day) so Kevin could come pretty quickly and help me jump start the car. Through this experience we realized that Kevin's car didn't have any jumper cables, we bought some for him today. I recommend you have them (and know how to use them) if you own a car. I know how to use them and keep a set of directions with them in my car, one of many skills my dad made sure I knew when I started driving.

We went to 2 different stores to find a place that had a battery for my car. I had to drive without a/c so that I could make sure my car would keep running - my battery was that dead - and that was NO fun in August heat. Did remind me to be thankful of how reliable and cool from a/c my car usually is!

The strangest part is that after we got the new battery put in, my radio said 'enter code'. Turns out it is an anti-theft device, if the radio is disconnected from the power source you have to enter a unique code that you got when you bought the car so that the radio works. it is a DUMB anti-theft device in my opinion since it won't keep anyone from stealing my car or somehow stealing my radio (its a factory installed - it would make more sense with after-market radios), and just resulted in me getting to drive home without music of any kind. Luckily, I was able to easily find the form with the code, right where it should be in my car file :) Makes me feel better about all the time that I spend filing all of the random paperwork that we have - it pays off every so often when I can easily find something that we need!

School days

Kevin is going back to school! He's been accepted to the MA in history program at Sam Houston State University.

Its going to be quite a change for him to be a full-time student again. We were both in grad school while we were dating, and working - sometimes I try to remember how we saw each other during those days....weekends, that was about it. There was at least one semester our classes were on opposite nights, but I digress. Going back to school will be a change for the better, and a HUGE step towards his ultimate goal of being able to teach at a community college. I'm so happy he got in and that he'll do well in this program.

I finally had an excuse to buy some school supplies (just notebooks and highlighters). A fun excuse for me since I LOOOVVVVEEE looking at all the school supplies.

I also found an orientation day, I need to find out what the heck a bearkat (school's mascot) is and all the useful things to help him in his program.

This good news came the same week that my brother accepted a job offer. He and his wife will be moving to Nicaragua for the job, so it will be a VERY busy month of August for them. They leave September 1. He has been unemployed for a long time and this job is such a perfect fit for him that it really is the answer to many prayers. As soon as I read the job description, I knew that it would be a great job for him.

I know that each of them were walking on air they were so happy with the news they received this week. Getting out of IT seems to be the theme of the week.

Wii workout

I wanted to get a workout game for the Wii so that I can have more variety in my workouts - anything to keep the motivation to work out is a good thing. Thanks to input from Allison and my sister, I decided on EA Sports Active. I received it in the mail yesterday and could not wait to try it out!

Once I figured out how to get the resistance band put together (I've never used one with handles, always just held onto the band) it went really well. I did have issues getting the nunchuk in and out of the strap on my leg, but got the hang of it by the end of the workout.

I like the variety - I did running, inline skating, punching bag, and weights reps all in one work out (favorite so far: the punching bag), and it tells you what you'll do in the next workout - tennis will be added. It'll keep me coming back and let me do something different than just walking, elliptical or the bike (which isn't an option when its raining).

What do you do to stay motivated to work out?

The joint birthday party went well. The kids all loved playing in the pool and would run back and forth between the pool and the bouncy house. The guys who came to take it down were NOT happy it had gotten wet, but what do you expect when its that close to a pool? AND they had said not to worry if it started raining so its not like it hasn't gotten wet before. oh well, its nothing some towels couldn't solve...

Kevin and I went into the bouncy house briefly before the guests started arriving, it was fun but made my legs feel like jello.

Our niece is walking, so that was quite a sight to see!

We completed another project at the house - installing dimmer switches for the light above each table. Now we can control how bright it is, which will make it much more pleasant to sit at the table. The project was quick and worked out pretty easily, we are definitely getting better!!

I feel like I need to prepare myself for today. We're attending a joint birthday party for our niece (turning 1) and nephew (turning 5), and there are going to be lots of kids, a pool and a bouncy house. It is sure to be chaos. hopefully it won't rain so that at least it can be chaos in the pool and bouncy house, otherwise it'll be all of us cooped up in the house.

I'm excited to see everyone - first time we get to see her since she started walking, and our nephew is a hoot. We'll also get to see some of the cousins and their kids. It'll be a lot of fun and nice after it all to come back to our quiet house.

Have a great weekend everyone!

Dining Table

We got our new dining table!

The saying that you find something when you're not looking for it was so true in this case. The weekend before last we went to a few furniture stores looking for a small table for Kevin's study. We decided to stop into a consignment shop to see if they had anything. While there, we were talking to the owner and mentioned that we were also looking for a dining table. She said that a man had come in recently wanting to bring his table there and she had photos of it.

We looked at the photos and both thought that it looked like what we were looking for. We talked about it more on the way home and called the woman back to find out more about it (dimensions, price). She gave us the owner's phone number and we contacted him to find out more about it. We made arrangements to go and see it on Sunday and liked it even more! It was just what we wanted - classic style, seats 8, and with cushioned seats. Even better than that it looks well made, with cherry wood and designs inlaid in the table and patterns carved on the chairs. It is gorgeous. We decided then and there that we wanted it, and made a deal with the owner.

Arrangements were made for delivery and we got the table on Saturday. Just like the day we moved into this house, we just beat the rain! On the drive back to the house (with the delivery truck following) there was lightning and lots of wind, but the table and chairs were safely in the house before it started to rain.

We plan to have lots of dinners and game nights on this table!

More pictures available here.

Cooking class

I attended a cooking class through Leisure Learning on Monday, and it went really well! It was my first hands-on class, and I didn't really know what to expect. It was held at a house, but this is no ordinary house. The house has a large kitchen with the stove arranged so that it overlooks the next room where there were two long tables set up for us to sit at. Surrounding the stove is a HUGE counter, great for prep work. Above the stove and work space are mirrors set so that we can see what is happening in the kitchen from our seats. It is a demonstration kitchen owned by a chef and rented for such classes by our chef-instructor.

I love Asian food so chose to take a class called "Spring Roll Workshop" and I was not disappointed. First we made four different sauces (one person made each of the sauces). I made a sweet and sour sauce, someone else made a peanut sauce, classic sauce, and an oriental sauce. We did the sauces first so that when we made each of the dishes we could eat them with one or all of the dipping sauces. I tried all four sauces, and my favorites were the sweet and sour and the classic sauce.

Once the sauces were made we moved onto the food - we made spring rolls and also made classic Chinese eggrolls, and dumplings. I definitely need to practice the rolling, but was pleased with how well they turned out, and they tasted great too. I love that this food is forgiving, especially the spring rolls its really put in it whatever you like (glass noodles, shrimp, cucumber, carrot, etc). Here is a twitpic of the last of the spring rolls that I made: http://twitpic.com/251po4 I was so pleased with how they looked and tasted.

It took me til the end of the night, but I finally realized that the oriental sauce reminded me of the sauec they serve with dumplings at this great dumpling place in downtown Houston. mmmm, dumplings

I will definitely be practicing these dishes at home!

Sesame Chicken Fingers

I haven't been posting any recipes lately. Never fear, we've been eating (probably more than we should). Today I dug out my Cooking Light cookbook and made a recipe from it for dinner. I was pleasantly surprised with how it turned out, though next time we'll try a different dipping sauce. The next time we have it we may be able to eat it on a new dining table! We found a table through a consignment shop and hope to have it at the house in a week or two.

Sesame Chicken Fingers

Dipping Sauce
1/3 cup stone-ground mustard
1/3 cup honey
2 tablespoons lime juice

Chicken
1/4 teaspoon salt
1/8 teaspoon black pepper
1 lb skinned, boned chicken breast - cut into strips
1/2 cup sesame seeds, toasted
1/2 cup dry breadcrumbs
2 large egg whites, lightly beaten
Cooking spray

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
Combine first 3 ingredients in a shallow bowl.
Sprinkle salt and pepper over chicken.
Combine sesame seeds and breadcrumbs in a shallow dish. Dip chicken in eggwhites and dredge in seeds/breadcrumbs mixture.
Spray baking sheet with cooking spray.
Arrange chicken in a single layer on a baking sheet.
Bake at 350 for 15 minutes, turning once.

Serve with dipping sauce.

Mother Nature is so strange. They've been talking on the radio about being on watch for the 'corpse flower'. It looks like it will bloom this weekend at the Houston Museum of Natural Science. Until I read about it I had no idea they were so rare - it will be only the second bloom in Texas and the 29th in the United States. I think I'll be happy just looking at the photos, but I am sure there are people out there who will brave the smell, described as "smelling like a decomposing carcass" to see this rare flower.

http://blog.hmns.org/?p=7119

I have to wonder why it developed this smell and also why it is so rare.....

4th of July

We had a great 4th of July. Our friends came over for brisket and we had a good time hanging out. Nearly everyone brought a dish to share so I think we ended up with more food than we started with! For all the rain we had Friday and Saturday, it was a beautiful day - great for all the BBQs and fireworks displays.

It is our first 4th in the neighborhood and I wasn't sure if I'd get to see fireworks. I should not have worried! We're not in the city, so its legal to do fireworks (even though our HOA frowns on it) and I had NO idea how much everyone got into it.

On Saturday night (July 3), we watched the neighbors across the street set off some fireworks. They reminded me of what my family set off when I was growing up - roman candles, fountains, and a few that shot off into the air. I was surprised not to see sparklers, but they did have the little white ones that you toss to the ground and they pop. Half the fun was watching the kids and their reactions and interactions, there were several families together so it was about 6 or 7 kids and there were the usual fights - its my turn, no mine - and even a girl stomping off to pout...

It turns out that night was just a taste of what we were going to see. On the 4th, after everyone had gone home from our BBQ we sat on the back patio to enjoy the evening and started to hear and see some large fireworks being set off in the neighborhood behind us. To get a better view we brought our folding chairs out to the front yard and were able to see quite a show. Families all around the neighborhoods had some really wonderful, professional quality fireworks that they'd set off all over the area. With the echos it was hard to know which way to look, there was so much to see. I would just decide on a direction to look and watch that way until I'd hear the launch of something in some other direction. We even saw some guys with what looked like saw horses (fireworks launchers?) drive by on their way along the gully and they told us to look in a specific direction. We could tell when they set theirs off...I can't even describe how beautiful they all were...I love fireworks, and the smell and the smoke made for a great evening. I don't have to worry about not seeing fireworks as long as we live here, and when we were tired of watching we could just walk inside, no having to fight traffic or anything.

A great way to end a wonderful day.

Hurricane Season

Having grown up on the Gulf Coast, I'm very aware of hurricanes and hurricane season. We all remember the names of the ones that have affected us - Alicia, Allison, Katrina, Rita, Ike, and others.

The good thing about hurricanes, unlike tornados, is that you have a lot of warning and time to prepare. Yet, still people are caught unaware, and I've seen that it isn't so much the storm but AFTERWARDS that you have to prepare for (little gas to be found, bare and empty grocery stores, no power).

I'm thinking of and praying for the people in Mexico who are about to be hit with Hurricane Alex, the first storm of the season and the first JUNE hurricane since 1995. I'm afraid it will be a very active season, and no one knows what will happen with the oil that is all over the gulf from the BP oil spill. That factor adds another level of concern for the people and the environment.

Be prepared and stay safe!

in more fun news, today is 3 years since Kevin and I tied the knot! Its been a fun and fast 3 years, and I look forward to many more....luv ya babe!

Everyone needs a cheerleader

I am so proud of my sister! She completed a triathlon (her first) this morning. She had to swim 300 meters, bike 10 miles, and then run 3 miles. I went with her to cheer her on, and so I could be her driver if her legs were jello bythe end of it. I was happy to do it, she's been training for it for a couple of months, and it helps to have a friendly face cheering you on.

I was tired just watching all of the competitors, not to mention that we got up at 4:30 am. It looked like a tough race, and it was brutally hot even that early in the morning. Lessons for next time: bring a chair to sit in (lots of waiting for her to come by on each leg of her race) and bring water for myself, I'm not running but still sweating. I was glad that I knew her number #639, it helped to judge when she might come by in the biking part, since they did a staggered start by number.

I do not know if I'd do a a triathlon, but I do find myself feeling inspired to train for something, Tour de Pink maybe?? and also to get some goggles so I can practice swimming....

Happy Birthday

Happy Birthday to my sweet husband Kevin!!

I baked and frosted a cake for him last night. I made it in two batches (we only have one 9" round pan) so that I could have two layers with frosting in between. It doesn't sit very evenly because the center rises higher than the rest. I guess professionals cut their cakes to be even? They do that all the time on Ace of Cakes. It isn't as pretty as I would like, but doesn't look too bad with the frosting added and it is made with lots of love. Tonight we'll see how it tastes :) It is chocolate and chocolate frosting, I think he likes chocolate MORE than I do so there was never any question on what flavor it would be. In all the time we've been together, I think this is the first birthday cake I've made for him, usually his mom makes him one even though she told us the year of our wedding that this was the last one she'd make for him. He's still her little boy, and she makes awesome desserts, so I don't think she can resist.

We'll have dinner out tonight, and go to his parents' to celebrate tomorrow (after watching the USA play in the World Cup), not a bad birthday weekend. We'll have a belated party with the 4th of July....

He's already gotten his gift from me - the outdoor speakers we installed last weekend. Next year's gift, I think he wants 'no assembly required' but I know he's enjoying them. He sat out on the patio for a while last night listening to them.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY KEVIN!

Success!

We installed a volume control (the piece that was missing to complete the outdoor speaker assembly), and after a lot of troubleshooting by Kevin, it works!

It took only one trip to RadioShack to get the volume control and lots of wire stripping and we now have sound on our patio. We felt very accomplished (and tired) when we finally had it finished. We'll get a lot of enjoyment out of it, and I'm glad we were able to get it completed this week since its a birthday gift to Kevin. It would've been disappointing to give him something that we can't get to work.

I can see why companies like geeksquad charge by the hour, it is time-consuming work to figure it all out, but we did it all on our own - with one call to the installers to understand how it was set up. GO TEAM TUCKER!

I was thinking about last summer as compared to this summer and am so glad we are finished with selling and moving out of our last house, and choosing and purchasing this house. Last summer was so busy with keeping the house constantly clean for showings, and grabbing the dog and leaving when someone wanted to see it (often on short notice). It was also busy with decluttering the house and moving items to the storage unit and getting ready to move.

This summer is also busy, but its a FUN busy - spending time with family and friends - which is a much better way to spend the summer. We are both glad we made the move, but don't plan to do it again any time soon.

Our latest house project is almost finished. We had the back patio pre-wired for speakers when it was built, and we finally chose some outdoor speakers and installed them in the ceiling of the patio. We worked on it early Sunday morning to avoid the heat of the day (even in the morning its already hot). We make a great team because each of us can do some of the tasks the other can't. I am hopeless with electric screwdrivers, and so I get the screw started with a regular screwdriver and then Kevin uses the electric one, he's also a whiz with a drill! I can strip the wires for the speakers, which is something he's not as good at.....none of the tasks are easy at the top of a ladder, but we got them done. We were able to get each of the speakers installed and they look great, one is a little crooked (my fault), but other than that they look really good. Unfortunately, we couldn't get any sound to come out of them. The wires at the receiver don't look quite like the wires that we hooked into the speakers (each speaker has a red and black wire, the wire at the receiver has 4 wires (we'd expected 2 sets of red and black wires)), so we had to hold off until I could talk to the installers.

It turns out we were just about right in our thought of what might've happened. They wired it to have a volume switch by the back door, and so we either need to add a volume control or splice the wires to complete the connections. We were so close! We even took that face plate off to see what was there, but thought the wires were for a security system.. We should be able to knock it out tonight, and then our patio will be even more relaxing when we can put on music out there, much better than our tiny boombox...

Chimichurri's

We had the BEST meal last night. We decided to try out a restaurant near us called Chimichurri's. If you can't guess from the name, it is South American food. I am so glad we went. We both love to try new places, but often just go to places we know since it is known we'll get something we like and we can easily get in and out.

Great experiences with new places like this one reminds me of why I love trying new places. It is more formal than most places we go, which made for a nice 'date night'. We were seated in what looked like a wine cellar, with shelves on the wall filled with wine bottles, so of course we had to try an Argentinean wine (yum!). When we left I saw that they've been given an award by Wine Spectator magazine for having such an extensive wine list, glad we took advantage of it!

While we browsed the menu we had plantain chips and chimichurri sauce, so good it was tough not to fill up on them. We each found something we wanted from the seafood menu. There were other dishes that looked good, we chose to avoid the chicken since we each chicken so often and wanted to make sure we each got something unique.

The dishes were so good, that we cleaned our plates!

We split a caesar salad, instead of croutons there were small pieces of toasted bread that we could break up into croutons. I'm glad we split one, it would've been too much for one person.
I had jumbo shrimp in a garlic sauce, and it was served with whipped cauliflower. I'd never heard of whipped cauliflower, but liked it so much that I will try to make it soon! I am always on the lookout for vegetables for Kevin to eat, and as a true testament to how good it was, HE even liked it! It looks a lot like mashed potatoes but does have a hint of cauliflower flavor.

Kevin had coffee-crusted snapper. Not flavors I would think we go together, but he loved it.

We will definitely be going back to this restaurant.