Belated Christmas

Merry Christmas (a few days late)!   We had a wonderful Christmas filled with family and food.  We were able to spend Christmas day with ]my husband's side of the family, including his grandmother and husband who flew in that day.   We received wonderful gifts and yet my favorites were seeing the kids' reactions to their gifts.    I think we finally nailed the gifts to niece and nephews (only took 10 years!).  

Our niece recently discovered pop-up books so she received two totally different pop-up books -- one about a ballerina since she loves to dance and the other the more classic story, Little Red Riding Hood.  She "read" them both to us that day.

For our two older nephews, we gave them each a toy car that the hood and doors open and Roblox gift cards, do not ask me to explain Roblox -- I don't get it - but they LOVE it.....I saw them playing it and it looks like a facebook world....I wonder if that is how my parents felt about Nintendo?

Youngest nephew received clothes from us, he's only 3 months so we'll give him clothes until he can complain :)

The other most fun gift to buy was for Kevin's grandmother, a self-proclaimed chocoholic, so we had to go to The Chocolate Bar - that is the BEST way to go there, you can browse and pick stuff out and know its a gift and not for you...we got her a 'chocoholic' mug and an assortment of delicious looking chocolates.

Smokey had a much calmer day (at home) and the picture above is the look he gives me every night when he wants in my lap...how can I say no?   For some reason, "he sees your when you're sleeping" pops in my head whenever I see that photo.

We were also able to show the grandparents our new home over the weekend, and took them to eat at a great place we have been wanting to check out, Grace's.  So good, and the atmosphere is great, the whole place looks like one big living room.....we will go back.

Smokey in Pajamas

A radio commercial worked on me......a while back I heard a commercial for 'pajamagrams', and looked at them for a laugh and ended up ordering a pair for Smokey.   Let me tell you that measuring him to figure out the size was a comedy of errors.

They came in the mail and we've put them on him most every night since.   They look really cute and I think he is liking them (putting them on him is definitely getting easier).    I'll take it as a win that he hasn't eaten them (unlike the long awaited jersey we got him years ago)....I wish the neck hole was a bit smaller, but we needed a large enough size to get around his barrel chest and they assume the neck is larger to match the other dimensions -- just like me his body is different sizes all over....

I did NOT getting matching pjs for us.

For your viewing pleasure, Smokey in his pajamas -- the design is 'dancing penguins'.  

We do take them off of him before we go to sleep, I think he'd get too hot and we don't want him wearing extra stuff when he's unattended, for safety reasons (and so he won't eat them).

Jeopardy audition

I did well enough on the Jeopardy online test to be invited for the in-person auditions!   I have been looking forward to this since I found out I made it to this stage of tryouts (first time for me).    A couple of times I tried to study (but failed) but I did read a bit about what to expect and I'm glad I did.

On the day of, I was excited and nervous, and when I found the room there were several people outside already (we were all a little early), they were talking about past tryouts and their knowledge of current champions and I was like, wow out of my league.  A guy there said, "nah they just take it too seriously"..that really made me feel better, since I was really just "happy to be there" and just wanted a photo of the sign -- got it!

The crew that we worked with put us at ease, they had to really warm up the room.  The day consisted of - tips of how to play the game (timing on buzzing in is HUGE), another high speed test, a mock round of the game (with real buzzers and competition with 2 others), and a brief interview.    I am not sure if I did well enough on the test but did feel pretty good about the mock round and the interview (I was SOO nervous about the interview),   We also met a member of the Clue Crew, Jimmy.

They really have the process down, there is no real down time -- when he was speaking with us the other staffers were sorting through our information and putting us in some sort of order for the mock round.  

It was a fun experience, and as chaotic as this last few weeks have been I thought the timing couldn't be worse, but really it was a great time to have a few hours to do something just for me and just for fun!    Kevin would've come with me, but guests wouldn't have been allowed in the room, so unless he wanted to wander the Galleria for hours he'd have just sat outside....

Now I need to watch for my fellow test-takers to see if I see any of them on tv!

I also love my swag --- earbuds in a bag and a pen that we used as a practice clicker.....

If you get the opportunity to try out --- do it!!  

behind the scenes

My sister had tickets to a Rockets game but her hubby had a test that night (its just mean to put a test on Saturday night!).   We went in their place and had a great time. 

We actually sat on bar stools set up behind the camera/media area and had fun seeing that layer of the game.   Look at all the giant cameras!  

 The one closest to us was the main view that was projected on the jumbo tron.   We also saw the guy who manages the live twitter feed and found ourselves watching when he would post and seeing what he'd said --- it takes a special talent to be able to live-tweet.    There are so many behind-the-scenes folks involved in putting on a professional sports game.  

Bonus of the seats we found -- it was really nice to have easy access to the bathroom and no battling with strangers over armrests or crawling/being crawled over to get to your seats...we may've found our new favorite seats.

It was a close game, but the Rockets lost :(  we'll get 'em next time!

This weekend it is finally starting to feel like fall/winter in Houston, and I am so happy....chilly when I walk Smokey, but happy.

I hope to have more fun posts soon...its been a long year....

Jeopardy

I took the Jeopardy test tonight...trust me, I have no illusions that I would be on the show ....I'd freeze up like a deer in headlights in front of the camera or I'd get out of view of the camera like I did when they tried to interview us after the Friends finale aired.....oh well, its always fun to take the test and test my knowledge...pop culture - ok, history and geography - not great...

too bad they don't let people do pairs for the game like Wheel of Fortune does.

I haven't forgotten about you little blog!    Just been busy busy with work (so don't want to get BACK on computer when I get home) and K is still adjusting to full-time teaching, seems like he has to grade each weekend, and last weekend he even reprised his teaching demo as part of an event to help adjuncts know what to expect in the application/interview process for the school.    Great idea, I know he could've benefited from it when he went through the process.    Trust me, he's loving it just still trying to work out how to fit everything in.

This weekend is my birthday so we hope to have some fun but remnants of Hurricane Patricia seem to have other plans, even saw an article with a quote from the mayor telling everyone to stay in Saturday and Sunday.....sad face.....so many events around town have been cancelled already I need to see if places are even open we were going to go to.   better to be safe and dry, so if i have to postpone I will, just bummed.....

Houston street art

I'm finally learning to call the art near my house 'street art' as opposed to 'graffiti'.  it really is art, and takes some serious talent.   look at the most recent addition to the wall.  makes every walk with Smokey more interesting.


Just recently I saw that we now have an entire festival devoted to it!

new office

I received the best phone call this week...Kevin was calling me from his brand new office phone!  

His office is definitely coming together in little pieces (he still doesn't have computer - he had it, but it has to get worked on so they had to take it away), but it will get there.  

He got some lamps for it this week (my hubby LOVES lamps!) and took advantage of a great deal on a printer.    We may go ahead and get him a fridge for his office too.

We planned to go work on getting it all set up this weekend, but realized its closed for the holiday weekend...oh well, another day.....

I cannot wait to see it (and have so many of his books have a proper home)

Baby Shower

I had a great time showering my sis-in-law yesterday in preparation of our new nephew's arrival.

The theme and cake were really cute -- giraffes -- and they had to get creative with the cake since the name isn't finalized, "lil Tuck", may have to keep using that nickname.

I helped with the shower by putting together the games.  I like to 'keep it simple' and do fairly easy games, and this way the games are always optional, if everyone is visiting/eating you can just skip one or more of the games and it won't be missed.  Here are the games we played, the first two were ones I'd played before, the third was a new to me one that we found online and thought would be easy and fun (and it was):

1) baby word scramble - give everyone the forms and they all start at the same time, set a time limit and first person to finish or person to get the most at the time limit wins.

2) who take after?  -  list of traits and you select whether mommy-to-be wants baby to take after mommy or daddy (prep work:  have mommy-to-be fill out ahead of time).  I just put this together in Excel.

3) baby price is right -- saw several variations, for ours a bunch of baby items were bought and put in a basket everyone could see.   Everyone makes a guess of how much the total bill is for the items, after everyone guesses then you look at guesses and choose winner based on closest without going over (and guest of honor gets the basket full of baby items).  This is a nice one to play as people come in, everyone can play at different time, just write their guess and put into basket.   Our 6-year old niece ALMOST won this one!    

Splitting the duties is the best way to do a shower, I just did games, others did decorations and food.  I know that mommy-to-be enjoyed it, and it was first time i saw her since she has had her bump, she truly is glowing!   Cannot believe the little guy will be here within a month!

They are totally set with baby stuff now --- stroller system, boppy, tons of cute clothes.

First week DONE!

We made it through the first week of classes!   Kevin had to take his first sick day from teaching, he was so sad he had to cancel his classes, but sometimes your body just says NO and he had to take a day of rest.

He had is annual Saint Arnold's outing with a colleague (now also a full-time faculty member at another campus)! and we ended the week eating outside at uberrito and watching kids (including my coworker's cute daughter) on the play equipment -- did i mention they have $1.99 margaritas til 6 pm?  yes, that was the winning info for that place :)

Reading today about some new words in the dictionary, I found my favorite: wine o'clock.

Check out the rest here.

National Dog Day

Social media told me its National Dog Day.....the way Smokey lives, I think every day is 'dog day' but I'll play along.   He can be a stinker, but he makes our days better...every day when I get home from work he is waiting for me, standing at the top of the stairs (note to self...photograph this sometime soon) and he is quite the snuggle bug when we watch tv....

I also realized that one year ago this week is when we moved out of and sold our previous home.  That was still the most stressful thing I've ever been through -- just now I found the emails we had to respond to ON closing day...our buyers (and their agent) were difficult to say the least.

First week of school is in full swing, and Kevin has seen his office!   yay!

easy leveling

My new home hack --- using yarn to make sure that staggered art work ended up even with each other.....way easier than learning to use a laser sight, and one less thing to keep around the house.

Taking this photo also helped me to have a 'during' and an 'after' photo.    For the before, just imagine a very empty wall....

I did not take photos of all the calculations I did to make sure that I had them mostly evenly spaced along the wall.....woohoo math!  Anyone who says they don't need fractions isn't thinking of how often they are used in everyday life.

celebrating Smokey

8 years ago today we met Smokey for the first time.....we had to wait a couple of days to bring him home so that we could spend the whole day with him (already had plans to attend nephew's birthday party).    There was a little bit of adjustment time, and we laughed that he'd growl at his reflection on the tv screen, and soon he was right at home.  

He can be a stinker, but we wouldn't have him any other way.  

Here's hoping we have many more years with him around.

I don't realize how much he's turned grey until I look at older photos of him.....we've all turned a little greyer over the years.

We may need to give him a treat or a new toy to honor the occasion, sort of his birthday with us :)

minions

I am definitely a kid at heart.  We went to see the Minions for nephew's 10th birthday and I think I liked it more than anyone, even the kids!


I especially like that one of the main characters was named Kevin.....I think niece got confused when we'd talk about character Kevin and she thought we'd talk about Uncle Kevin...


Can I please have a minion (or 100) ??

tuckered out dog

We had a great weekend at the beach with all of the Tuckers.    I think this photo of Smokey on the way home sums up how all 3 of us felt on our way home on Sunday -- tired, a little sandy, and very content.


We rented a beach house and went to the beach each day.  It was great to spend the weekend with everyone, and a great chance to 'unplug'.

Our niece even had a 'beach birthday' - we celebrated her 6th birthday at the house -- I got to write her name on a cake, and it was actually legible!

She liked the gifts we got her - a music CD that she would dance to, a purse, and shrinky dinks -- we didn't do any of the shrinking yet, but she enjoyed working on coloring them.   I have to admit the shrinky dinks were as much for me as for her.

this is 40

Happy Belated birthday Kevin!

He turned 40 this week, and boy did we celebrate, it just took a few days for me to come back and post here.

We hosted a party last weekend, and I think everyone had a great time.    We had wanted to highlight our new neighborhood and found a local bar to host it (no rental charge -score!).  It had a great view of downtown and we were able to control the music.

A girl from our old neighborhood made the cake for the party, and she did just what I wanted, and it was delicious (we enjoyed the leftovers all week!) .  I am not a fan of the headstones, grim reaper theme for the party, and so I went a different way.   We see 40 as just the next chapter in his life, with lots to look forward to so i really liked the 'aged to perfection' idea, and the bar had a statue of Jack Daniel's up there with us so a Jack Daniel's theme was perfect.

On his actual birthday we had a great dinner at a local (new to us) Italian restaurant.  it is one of three located right near each other and the way they are situated it feels like you are walking in a courtyard in Italy.   Great setting, and delicious food -- amazingly, neither of us had pasta!

As I told K on facebook, he makes 40 look fun!!

Wimberley

We had a fantastic vacation and it was just what we needed to recharge.

We had decided we wanted to take Smokey on a trip with us this summer, and a short road trip was just what we wanted.    We rented a cabin and enjoyed a few days to ourselves.   I loved that my cellphone had no service so I could really unplug, and even though I brought my laptop it never came out of its bag.   The place did have wi-fi, which came in handy for looking up a few places to go and directions as needed.   Mostly, we just enjoyed each other's company and the scenery.   We only turned on the tv to watch a movie in the evening, and even then it was movies we'd already seen.

Parts of Wimberley were hit hard by the flooding on Memorial Day weekend, so leading up to the trip I was a little worried at what we would find, but also didn't want to call while people who work in the area could be trying to rebuild their lives.  I did ultimately call (had to see if it was ok for us to come) and they said that the place was fine, and so we went -- figure its the best thing we can do, bring our tourism dollars to a city on the mend.

Monday

We drove to Wimberley, driving over the Blanco River (where the worst flooding was) was surreal, all these flattened trees, and piles of belongings out at the curbs.  We were also surprised to see disaster relief trailers -- makes sense, we just didn't expect it.    The city looked unharmed - really cute little collection of shops of all kinds.   We went to the local grocery store to pick a few items we needed (charcoal, juice, half and half -- and a lighter for the grill (very important)) and then went to find the cabin.     Finding the cabin was an adventure, the directions were not the best, but we did finally find it -- turns out its on a piece of land with the owners of the property and another rental that they own.     Not quite as secluded as we thought from the description, but still plenty of privacy.

We got settled into the place - a very comfortable place with lots of comforts -- they even provided fresh eggs (they have a chicken coop) and locally grown coffee.    We cooked outside on the charcoal grill each night - fajitas that night.     We also took advantage of the fire pit and made a great campfire and roasted marshmallows for s'mores.     We enjoyed the evening and watched the stars come out.

Tuesday

After exploring the grounds, we decided to visit one of the nearby wineries.  After looking at descriptions and photos online we chose one that promised great views and also contained vineyards (some Texas ones are only winery - make the wine there, but grapes come from elsewhere).  Driftwood Estate Winery was just what we wanted.   We did our tastings indoors and then took our glasses of wine to the grounds outdoors -- beautiful, and they welcome picnics!   Its on a bluff  so we sat at a picnic table and were able to look down at the valley and the vineyard and surrounding area.   Their bubbly white, called Starry Nights, was delicious.  Kevin is more of a fan of reds, he liked their Alamo Red.

On the road to the winery, we'd seen a sign for a rum distillery and decided we had to check that out too.   I kid you not, its in a family's front yard!   We met the owner (Laura) and they had just recently built an outdoor tasting area, reminiscent of a bar. We were able to to taste all 3 kinds of rum that they make.   My favorite was the vanilla one (Laura makes her own vanilla extract for it) and we bought a bottle to bring home.

We enjoyed a lazy afternoon and again grilled outside -- chicken and corn on the cob.  I had forgotten to bring corn holders so we had to use giant skewers, it worked but was pretty funny to see.


Wednesday

We wanted a little more active day, so we decided to check out Mt Baldy.  Its a large hill in town and limestone steps lead all the way up to the top.  Smokey did great going up and down the stairs with us and the views from the top were spectacular.

Afterwards we walked around the town a bit and did some window shopping.   We also found a dog-friendly restaurant to stop into and enjoy the view of the creek, they even gave Smokey his own dish of water.   The menu looked good, but we just weren't hungry so we just had a drink and enjoyed the scenery.  

We had a lazy afternoon.  the heat of the day was a great excuse to read and nap!

That night we prepared one last meal on the grill, burgers.



We headed home on Thursday.   Each morning we enjoyed eggs that the homeowners had left for us and Kevin tried out their french press for his coffee - he's a fan.  

June goals

I've seen several people posting monthly goals, a good way to set smaller goals and likely more successful than new year's resolutions.

Here are my goals for June:

- have lunch with Kevin during the week.  we have been wanting to do this for a while, he can come downtown (bike or train) and meet me.  we just need to DO it before he gets busy with classes again.

- do brunch --- we have been wanting to take advantage of living in town and making it to one of the many brunch spots but haven't yet, we want to remedy that this month.  If you have suggestions on places, let me know!

- celebrate Kevin's birthday -- he turns the big 4-0!!!

- plan a night out with my coworker, Kevin and her hubby      our husbands haven't met, but we think we'd have a fun night out, finding couple friends is almost as hard as dating, wish us luck!

- get up early enough to attend the boot camp class twice a week at work gym.

- get my parents' house listed for sale...this project has been ongoing and the end is (we hope) in sight!


I hope to come back in July and see how we did.

Job offer!

Today was a memorable day for all of Houston due to the flooding, and for my husband and I because he finally heard about the job he'd interviewed for and was waiting on -- he got it!

He summed up the process better than I can, and so I just pulled his posting, where he sweetly thanks me, from Facebook.   Congratulations, its because of all of your hard work that you will get to be a full-time college professor!!

Kevin's facebook post to let friends and family know:


I haven't really put much on Facebook about this, but in March I applied for a full time faculty position that opened up at the college I have been teaching at since 2012. Today, I received word that I have been selected for the position! It was one of the best calls I have ever received! Words cannot describe how excited I am right now! As some of you may know, in 2010 I decided to take a risk and make a major career change from Software Engineering to becoming a college professor. Now I can finally say my ultimate goal has been achieved! There is absolutely no WAY I could have done this without the support and encouragement of my incredible wife, Carol, as well as the support of friends and family along the way. I would not have been able to do this alone, but especially without Carol, who I love with all my heart and without whom I would not have gotten to this point. I am forever grateful sweetie:-) And to all of the wonderful teachers and colleagues I have had along the way, I thank you as well, for you helped me dream the dream and to believe that I could make it happen! With great humility, I look forward to my new career while not losing sight of how so many of you believed in me and encouraged me along the way. Thank you to all! 

flooding

No one in Houston will forget this year's Memorial Day.  It has rained a lot this spring, but last night beat it all.

Even though we went to bed, we were awake most of the night listening to the rain and seeing the lightning, and all of the emergency alerts that kept blowing up Kevin's phone, but we were the lucky ones.  Many people (including my sister) were stranded all over town.   I know that my sister being out in the storm -- she found a gas station to seek shelter in, was part of why I couldn't sleep.  I knew there was nothing I could do, but still worried for her.

Today we could not stop watching the coverage, tv and social media, about it.   I really feel for the people who are dealing with flooded homes and cars today, and even worse for those who lost loved ones.  

Meanwhile, I felt a little guilty since we just had a nice stay at home day, smoked some ribs and road our bikes to pick up fresh bread from a local bakery.

I know there will be more photos to come, but here is a good collection of a few.

This storm reminded me a lot of Tropical Storm Allison, and its just rain - no real storm system.

Lovely wedding

My sister's wedding was a great success!

It was a very busy weekend and there were things that went wrong (there always are), but all of that fades away when we see how happy the newly married couple is and all of the guests had a great time -- groom's dad was one proud papa!  My parents were over the moon as well.

I know that my sister is glad the planning is over (so am I) and it was wonderful to see so many family and friends and watch her commit to a wonderful man and he to her.

We were fortunate with the weather, especially seeing the weather we had before and after their wedding day. I am actually really glad she got married on a 3 day weekend, I needed the extra day to recover.

I was most nervous about giving my toast, I was rewriting it even the morning of the wedding!     I was able to give it, with a couple of stops because I just choked up as soon as I saw her with her new husband looking beautiful in her dress, but I did make it through it...she's so sweet she offered to read it for me, but I was like -- no, I have to do it (and it was so scribbled out I don't think she could've read it even if she wanted to).   I am so glad she let me go first, but realized after I gave it I wasn't sure what I was supposed to do - who do I give mic to, where do I go???

Our hair and makeup took longer than expected since one hair stylist wasn't there (the one that did our hair did a great job!)  so we were running late to the venue, it made for quite a comedy of errors for 6 bridesmaids + bride to get ready.  

Kevin looked great in his suit, and was such a trooper -- staying even after the grand exit so we could gather up all the items to bring back to the hotel.  


*I hope to add more to this recap but wanted to get it up before the weekend comes to an end*

hectic May

Happy May!

I realized this was sitting in my drafts.....been so busy I've thought of this blog but not made time to post, which is a shame because when I keep up with it it gives a nice little record of what is happening in our world.  So you get a little bullet point list

• April Showers -- in April we had both the literal kinds of showers (rain) and parties --- sister's bachelorette party AND her bridal shower. The two events were very different but each very fun.    We hosted the bridal shower at the clubhouse for Events and Adventures -- the group where she met her future husband :)   
• I spent some time with my siblings at the house we grew up in trying to get it cleaned out and ready to get on the market, it was a weird feeling seeing it empty (they moved in when i was 6 months old so I have NEVER seen it empty).   I've had my chance to tell it good bye and just want to get the process done to get it sold.
• Kevin has been busy -- in addition to finishing out his semester, he had a job interview!  well actually 3 -- he made it through round one (9 interviewees!) and was able to go to round 2 which had 2 separate interviews.   We are still waiting to hear the outcome, no matter what it is I am so proud of him and he has now been through the full interview process for a faculty job -- totally different than getting his adjunct position
• once the bridal parties were wrapped up I started working on Kevins' 40th birthday party plans for June
• we are now only 6 days from my sister's wedding!!  hoping for some drier weather this week and YES  I am still working on my toast....I think its the hardest job in my role as Maid of Honor

Second bedroom re-do

Before

What a weekend!   We now have a totally different room downstairs (second bedroom), and it will work much better for us.  This room has been usable but not great since we moved, we've just been making use of furniture that we already had.   Now its like a whole new room....

Nothing like a deadline to get us moving!    My mom will spend the night with us next weekend so we knew we had to get this room fixed up soon.    We finally got rid of an old couch and ottoman, good furniture just too big for the space and not what we need anymore.    With that gone, we were finally able to put together the new sleeper sofa we'd bought (and stop having it hanging out in the garage in a box).  We are now ready for short guests!  I mean short literally, as in not tall, since the couch isn't all that long.  I suppose a tall person could lay diagonally on it?    My mom can tell us how comfortable it is.

Sleeper sofa

Desk

The biggest change was getting a new desk for Kevin.   We had this tiny desk that just wasn't working and he spends a lot of time prepping lectures at the computer so we really needed a new set up.      This was an adventure in itself as he found a used furniture place online that we went to see.   It was the strangest set up I've ever seen.....i'f you've ever wondered what happens to office furniture when it is replaced or a company goes out of business....this is it.  I'd never seen so many file cabinets and white boards....we found a desk that will work -- just a large tabletop and plenty of space for his legs, and even found a nice desk chair to boot!     We were not sure if it would fit into our vehicle but managed to get both in with our tetris skills and got it set up at home.   we even had the tools necessary to drill a few extra hidden holes for all the wires we have.     Its a pretty nice set up and he's already using it....

spring!

I know that some parts of the country still have snow on the ground (sorry Delena), in Texas its finally starting to feel like spring!    Saw these lovely bluebonnets on my way into the office today.

I love the one random yellow flower in the bunch of bluebonnets.....be prepared for your social media to be taken over by blue bonnet photos.


What have we been up to?   lots of working, and lots of wedding party planning -- hard to believe my sister's wedding is less than 2 months away!    I'm excited to be her maid of honor (still calling myself maid even though technically I'm a matron - but matron is no fun....) and we have some surprises planned for her shower and bachelorette party!

Spring Break

Happy Spring Break!   to my husband and all the students at his school.  They have a different spring break then my school so we aren't really planning on going anywhere, but I know he'll enjoy the break from classes.

Now if only the weather would be more agreeable.  Just last week I had to leave earlier than planned from Dallas to make sure I got out of town before the predicted sleet, glad we got home safely and drove just through rain --- saw photos the next day of the hotel we were at covered in snow.

I haven't kept up with my listings of our adventures living in town, but had a first for me last week.  I had to pick up a rental car for the trip and was able to WALK to the rental place to pick it up, it was about a 20 minute walk and easier than trying to coordinate my schedule and K's to get me there :)   We wanted a walkable area and are able to do things we could only do on vacation before!

Happy Valentine's Day!

Happy Valentine's Day!

We decided to bypass the crowds and celebrated last night.   We had a great time checking out some new places in Midtown and had some delicious food.    Thanks K for being designated driver so I could enjoy a few cocktails :)

...I plan to come back and provide more details about our night out....AFTER I take Smokey for his morning walk :)

..oops, I never came back to provide details....we had dinner at Sparrow, a delicious dinner for both of us!   The menu changes each day based on what the chef thinks looks good at the farmers market that day.  I had short ribs with espresso based sauce (sooo good), K had hanger steak, and we split a side of mashed potatoes.  the desserts sounded so good, but we were just so full...i also had a drink made with rhubarb!

Kitchen hardware

We are loving our new place and did a fairly easy project in January that we can enjoy EVERY day.    We put in kitchen hardware.    Some cabinets had hardware we didn't like and others had nothing at all.  We were hoping to complete the project over the holidays but to get what we wanted we had to order it online, of course.....it was worth the wait, having only 3 large drawers we wanted substantial handles for them, and we got that -- they are each 13" long!     I am glad we have only 3 drawers since the pulls with 2 holes are tough to install, lots of measuring and it has to be exact.

All in all we got them all installed in one day, and are so happy to have them.  It really improves the look of the kitchen and its so much easier to open the cabinets.....

New Years

Happy 2015!!!    We planned to ring it in at home and did ring it in within our block.   We were surprised with 2 separate invitations from our neighbors to join them in their celebrations, next door was having a few people over and two doors down was having a full-on party.    We happily joined each of the groups - hanging out next door and then our whole group going over to ring in the new new year at the party.   We are so glad to get to know our neighbors a little better, we are much the same age and all in similar places in life so we hope to spend more time with them this year!

Our last dinner of 2014 was delicious, K had the idea to try to replicate a meal we'd had at union kitchen and we did a pretty good job of it -- a steak placed on top of a polenta cake and arugula.   It was our first time to make polenta and arugula and it all turned out great! We already have ideas on how to improve but not a bad first try!

Lessons learned (recipes we used are linked):

Polenta -- next time we want to pan fry it to make it crispy

Arugula - we way underestimated how much we needed, when it wilts it gets small.  I was not sure if the ounces were weight or volume, definitely weight (should've used the whole bag). Silly measurement system using the same unit of measure to mean VERY different things....

I hope you all had a great start to your new year!    Even Smokey had a better start since being in the city limits fireworks are not allowed, our last house would sound like a war zone for days and the poor guy would end up scared out of his mind....