Saturday, October 31, 2009
Happy Halloween!
Tuesday, October 27, 2009
more tales from the road
Alfred said he liked my post last week about our trip, so here's another one for him. I think some of you may have already heard this story.
The place: Seattle. It was hot. Seattle in general, and Mike's apartment in particular, is not air conditioned. Mike had graciously offered us his bed, but we declined, saying that the couch and air mattress would be just fine for us. Turns out that was a mistake. His bedroom was somehow a lot cooler than the living room, for one thing, and Alfred managed to deflate the air mattress during the night. He has a talent for that. I fared better on the couch, though since I was kind of sweaty I kept sticking to the couch and had to peel myself off of it whenever I rolled over. I tried to keep myself wrapped in the sheet to prevent this, but then the whole hotter-than-hell thing kicked back in. And it wasn't just the heat. Since it was so warm, we kept the windows open at night to try to get some cooler air inside. Mike's apartment was about, oh, 20 feet from 2 major interstates.
You could probably literally get a running start and jump onto I5. So it was loud. And hot. And Alfred somehow deflated the air mattress. The second night, he and I switched sleeping surfaces. I was fine on the air mattress, but he of course was unhappy on the couch. And Mike and I had to listen to him whine all day about being tired. So Mike got proactive. He asked me (via text, with Alfred in the same room as us, if I recall correctly) if it was ok if he crushed up some sleeping pills and put them in Alfred's drink. I said sure. 
So Mike very generously offered to get us all drinks. He was even nice enough to give Alfred the frozen mug. After awhile, Mike took our glasses back to the kitchen (he had noticed some floaters in Alfred's glass and didn't want Alfred to see them) and soon after that we went to bed. And our dear friend Alfred slept like a baby. Success! He's so much happier with a good night's sleep. Now, just so you don't worry that Alfred's seeing this for the first time right now, Mike did tell him about this the next day. And when we finally left Seattle, we had a few doses of sleeping pills in hand, in case of future emergencies. Thanks, Mike.
The place: Seattle. It was hot. Seattle in general, and Mike's apartment in particular, is not air conditioned. Mike had graciously offered us his bed, but we declined, saying that the couch and air mattress would be just fine for us. Turns out that was a mistake. His bedroom was somehow a lot cooler than the living room, for one thing, and Alfred managed to deflate the air mattress during the night. He has a talent for that. I fared better on the couch, though since I was kind of sweaty I kept sticking to the couch and had to peel myself off of it whenever I rolled over. I tried to keep myself wrapped in the sheet to prevent this, but then the whole hotter-than-hell thing kicked back in. And it wasn't just the heat. Since it was so warm, we kept the windows open at night to try to get some cooler air inside. Mike's apartment was about, oh, 20 feet from 2 major interstates.
You could probably literally get a running start and jump onto I5. So it was loud. And hot. And Alfred somehow deflated the air mattress. The second night, he and I switched sleeping surfaces. I was fine on the air mattress, but he of course was unhappy on the couch. And Mike and I had to listen to him whine all day about being tired. So Mike got proactive. He asked me (via text, with Alfred in the same room as us, if I recall correctly) if it was ok if he crushed up some sleeping pills and put them in Alfred's drink. I said sure. 
So Mike very generously offered to get us all drinks. He was even nice enough to give Alfred the frozen mug. After awhile, Mike took our glasses back to the kitchen (he had noticed some floaters in Alfred's glass and didn't want Alfred to see them) and soon after that we went to bed. And our dear friend Alfred slept like a baby. Success! He's so much happier with a good night's sleep. Now, just so you don't worry that Alfred's seeing this for the first time right now, Mike did tell him about this the next day. And when we finally left Seattle, we had a few doses of sleeping pills in hand, in case of future emergencies. Thanks, Mike.
Sunday, October 25, 2009
ah, fall
I've decided that I really like fall. I like when the weather starts to cool off and the humidity drops. I like that work starts to get a little busy: busy enough to give me something to do so I'm not bored, but not so busy that I go crazy. And I like that football is on and we spend all day cooking! Yesterday we hit the farmers market and had all these plans for food to make to eat during the Jaguars game. Unfortunately the Jaguars aren't playing this week, so that plan sort of fell through, so instead we watched the Vikings game for Mike. Pretty good game, especially the fourth quarter, though I must admit I slept through some of it. All that eating wore me out.
We started our day with a smoothie for breakfast (didn't want to weigh ourselves down too early). Then we got cracking with the food. We made 2 dips: 1 with eggplant and 1 with spinach and cannellini beans. Both were awesome. To go along with these dips we attempted to make some butternut squash chips. We do this with both squash and sweet potato fairly regularly, but for some reason it totally didn't work today. So we ended up with some kind of mushy baked squash pieces. Still tasted good. Luckily we had also decided to make some pita bread to have with our dip. Yup, pita bread! From scratch! It was awesome!
You roll the dough out really thin and then they puff right up in the oven. So cool. They were yummy, too. Now I totally want to have a Mediterranean dinner party.
After the game (and my nap) we had one more kitchen task for the day: roasting chicken. Yes, we're currently roasting 2 chickens in the oven.
One's just your basic roast chicken, with garlic and lemon, and the other one has a Caribbean rub and basting sauce. I'm not so sure we'll be hungry enough to eat much chicken tonight, but that's ok. It just means we'll have food ready to go for dinners this week. We have big plans to make some chicken salad to eat in our leftover pitas. Anyway, our kitchen is clearly a bit of a disaster right now, as can be seen in this picture. Alfred tried his best to get out of the frame. Ha! Got him!
I just remembered the other reason I like fall: cranberries are in season! Last year we found this amazing cranberry chutney recipe, not realizing that we were at the end of cranberry season. So we've been waiting months for fresh cranberries to be at the store again. We made our first batch yesterday. It's so damn good. I might have to go sneak a spoonful right now.
We started our day with a smoothie for breakfast (didn't want to weigh ourselves down too early). Then we got cracking with the food. We made 2 dips: 1 with eggplant and 1 with spinach and cannellini beans. Both were awesome. To go along with these dips we attempted to make some butternut squash chips. We do this with both squash and sweet potato fairly regularly, but for some reason it totally didn't work today. So we ended up with some kind of mushy baked squash pieces. Still tasted good. Luckily we had also decided to make some pita bread to have with our dip. Yup, pita bread! From scratch! It was awesome!
You roll the dough out really thin and then they puff right up in the oven. So cool. They were yummy, too. Now I totally want to have a Mediterranean dinner party. After the game (and my nap) we had one more kitchen task for the day: roasting chicken. Yes, we're currently roasting 2 chickens in the oven.
One's just your basic roast chicken, with garlic and lemon, and the other one has a Caribbean rub and basting sauce. I'm not so sure we'll be hungry enough to eat much chicken tonight, but that's ok. It just means we'll have food ready to go for dinners this week. We have big plans to make some chicken salad to eat in our leftover pitas. Anyway, our kitchen is clearly a bit of a disaster right now, as can be seen in this picture. Alfred tried his best to get out of the frame. Ha! Got him!I just remembered the other reason I like fall: cranberries are in season! Last year we found this amazing cranberry chutney recipe, not realizing that we were at the end of cranberry season. So we've been waiting months for fresh cranberries to be at the store again. We made our first batch yesterday. It's so damn good. I might have to go sneak a spoonful right now.
Wednesday, October 21, 2009
tales from the road
As you may have guessed, there was plenty that happened on our trip that didn't make it into our travel blog in much detail. The other day, Alfred and I were talking about one evening that was sort of glossed over at the time, mainly because we didn't want to worry our mothers. The particular night we were remembering the other day was the night we spent in the Grand Tetons. We had arrived in the park and attempted to find a campsite (such a common theme of our trip). Since the official park guide paper said that at least 2 of the campgrounds rarely filled up, we were rather shocked and dismayed to find that there were no spots left anywhere. At that point, I had a bit of a breakdown. I was done. Just done with camping, driving, the trip, everything. I don't even remember if Alfred had a breakdown, I just remember being on the verge of tears and hating everything. I believe the two of us exchanged some heated words.
Eventually we agreed to drive down a dirt road into the forest to try to find a place in the national forest to camp.
The road wound up a hill and ended up overlooking the valley and mountain range in the distance. It was perfect, except for one slight little tiny thing: there may have been a homicidal maniac camping nearby. You see, we had driven past a rather suspicious looking van and campsite parked in the middle of the woods. Just beyond that was a clearing with an abandoned looking tent (it had blown upside down), another tent with no one there, and a broken down looking camper. Clearly, we assumed that the owner(s) of the van were murderers who had already killed the occupants of at least one other campsite. Plus, this was still bear country. But despite the potential killers, both human and mammal, we decided to set up camp.
After dinner we came back to our tent and were somewhat relieved to see signs of habitation at the camper near our site. By this time a storm was rolling in: there were masses of dark clouds, lightening, and reports of hail from what internet we could get on our phones. So in an effort to take our minds off of the violent-looking weather, impending bear attack, and van-dwelling murderers, we decided to watch a couple episodes of Weeds. We shared my earphones so that no one outside could hear it. And yeah, we spent close to an hour watching TV in a tent on top of a cliff next to a mountain range. Looking back, it was actually kind of awesome.
Eventually we agreed to drive down a dirt road into the forest to try to find a place in the national forest to camp.
The road wound up a hill and ended up overlooking the valley and mountain range in the distance. It was perfect, except for one slight little tiny thing: there may have been a homicidal maniac camping nearby. You see, we had driven past a rather suspicious looking van and campsite parked in the middle of the woods. Just beyond that was a clearing with an abandoned looking tent (it had blown upside down), another tent with no one there, and a broken down looking camper. Clearly, we assumed that the owner(s) of the van were murderers who had already killed the occupants of at least one other campsite. Plus, this was still bear country. But despite the potential killers, both human and mammal, we decided to set up camp.After dinner we came back to our tent and were somewhat relieved to see signs of habitation at the camper near our site. By this time a storm was rolling in: there were masses of dark clouds, lightening, and reports of hail from what internet we could get on our phones. So in an effort to take our minds off of the violent-looking weather, impending bear attack, and van-dwelling murderers, we decided to watch a couple episodes of Weeds. We shared my earphones so that no one outside could hear it. And yeah, we spent close to an hour watching TV in a tent on top of a cliff next to a mountain range. Looking back, it was actually kind of awesome.
Monday, October 19, 2009
Thin blooded floridians
It was 60 degrees at about 11:00 when I got to walmart. I've seen outfits ranging from shorts and t shirt to winter coat and hat. It's always amusing when the first cold weather of the season hits. (for the record, I'm in pants and 3/4 sleeve shirt, which is completely reasonable, though if I'm going to be honest I must admit I wore a sweater out of the house this morning.) ah, Florida. Also, I recently learned about www.peopleofwalmart.com, which is always good for a laugh.
Sunday, October 18, 2009
long time, no blog
I know that people aren't checking this as often, most likely because I'm not writing as much. Sorry, it's just tough to find the time right now. Mainly because we still have the internet card that we used on our trip, which Alfred takes to work every day, so I don't have internet access when I get home from work, which is when I generally used to at least start writing my posts. It just seems harder to write now, too. Ah well. Excuses, excuses. Anyway! On with the news of the week!
Celebrations: it was a big week for events. Katie and Ingo kicked it off last Saturday with their wedding, then Katie continued the fun with her birthday on Tuesday. Tony and Cathy were also celebrating their anniversary on Tuesday. Wednesday was both Egee and Max's birthday, which we were able to celebrate with him. Then yesterday we went to Mercedes' birthday party; her birthday is this coming Tuesday. Lots going on.
Work: we're having a Halloween festival, so the other girl I work with has been stressing herself out over that for the past couple of weeks.
She's the type to plan things out way in advance and then worry about it for as long as possible. Pretty much the opposite of me in that way. But there's a scarecrow riding a bone motorcycle on display out front now, so that's neat. We have rats living in our ceiling, we put out some poison, and I found a dead rat in our break room on Friday. There's lots of construction going on, so we have lots of shirtless men roaming around, none of whom are worth looking at shirtless. It's a shame.
Weather: suddenly, it's fall. Today's high is only in the 60s, although it's supposed to be back in the 80s later this week. It's a nice change. It makes me want to bake some brownies or something.
I don't think our break in guy was ever arrested. There was an article about the guys who beat him up being arrested, so I have his name, but google doesn't tell me anything about him being arrested.
Celebrations: it was a big week for events. Katie and Ingo kicked it off last Saturday with their wedding, then Katie continued the fun with her birthday on Tuesday. Tony and Cathy were also celebrating their anniversary on Tuesday. Wednesday was both Egee and Max's birthday, which we were able to celebrate with him. Then yesterday we went to Mercedes' birthday party; her birthday is this coming Tuesday. Lots going on.
Work: we're having a Halloween festival, so the other girl I work with has been stressing herself out over that for the past couple of weeks.
She's the type to plan things out way in advance and then worry about it for as long as possible. Pretty much the opposite of me in that way. But there's a scarecrow riding a bone motorcycle on display out front now, so that's neat. We have rats living in our ceiling, we put out some poison, and I found a dead rat in our break room on Friday. There's lots of construction going on, so we have lots of shirtless men roaming around, none of whom are worth looking at shirtless. It's a shame.Weather: suddenly, it's fall. Today's high is only in the 60s, although it's supposed to be back in the 80s later this week. It's a nice change. It makes me want to bake some brownies or something.
I don't think our break in guy was ever arrested. There was an article about the guys who beat him up being arrested, so I have his name, but google doesn't tell me anything about him being arrested.
Sunday, October 11, 2009
sneak peak
Yesterday we went to Universal Studios with Kevin, Gara, and Gara's brother Bil. It was bloody hot, and surprisingly busy. I guess we shouldn't have been surprised by that, since Halloween Horror Nights is going on. Kevin and Gara came to our house Friday night and spent the night (we had homemade pizza for dinner, which was good), then we left nice and early Saturday morning after a breakfast of cinnamon rolls. We met Bil at the park.
There's a new roller coaster there where you get to pick a song to listen to on the ride. I panicked for a little while, trying to decide which one to go with, but luckily we were in line for over an hour so I had plenty of time. They also record video of you along the way, and at the end you can go watch it and make your own music video (which I imagine would be pretty sweet). So we find our picture and start to watch my video, and 3 seconds in you can clearly read my lips as I yell "oh f***!" It was awesome!
We made sure that we brought a camera into the park, and then managed to not take any pictures of us there. The only pictures I took there were on my phone, of the new Harry Potter attraction.
It looks pretty cool, but apparently they got rid of part of the park to build it, including the location of these photos:
Yes, they got rid of the cave bar that had happy hour, but there's still a bar with a happy hour in the area. So yeah, we drank a bunch. And ate a bunch. Then drank some more. No Ben and Jerry's, though. Fun times anyway.
This morning we went out to breakfast before Kevin and Gara headed back home. We've been planted on the couch ever since. It's been a good weekend!
There's a new roller coaster there where you get to pick a song to listen to on the ride. I panicked for a little while, trying to decide which one to go with, but luckily we were in line for over an hour so I had plenty of time. They also record video of you along the way, and at the end you can go watch it and make your own music video (which I imagine would be pretty sweet). So we find our picture and start to watch my video, and 3 seconds in you can clearly read my lips as I yell "oh f***!" It was awesome!
We made sure that we brought a camera into the park, and then managed to not take any pictures of us there. The only pictures I took there were on my phone, of the new Harry Potter attraction.
It looks pretty cool, but apparently they got rid of part of the park to build it, including the location of these photos:
Yes, they got rid of the cave bar that had happy hour, but there's still a bar with a happy hour in the area. So yeah, we drank a bunch. And ate a bunch. Then drank some more. No Ben and Jerry's, though. Fun times anyway. This morning we went out to breakfast before Kevin and Gara headed back home. We've been planted on the couch ever since. It's been a good weekend!
Saturday, October 10, 2009
congratulations Katie and Ingo!
Today is Katie and Ingo's wedding day! They met in Australia and are now living in (and getting married in) Germany. We finally got to meet Ingo at Katherine and Jevon's wedding, which is where this picture was taken. I so wish we were there to celebrate with them... congratulations, guys!
Wednesday, October 7, 2009
friends!
First of all, I apologize to my thousands of readers who have had nothing to read for days on end. My internet had been stolen for days on end. By the most nefarious villain of them all: Alfred. Well, and time, to be fair. On with the post!
Saturday we were house sitting. It's kind of a long boring story, but we weren't going to and then we ended up doing it. I'm sick of the whole ordeal and want out, but Alfred caved. It is a lot closer for him to go to work, so it makes sense, it just makes me mad. I don't like feeling taken advantage of. They asked Alfred to come pick them up at the airport tomorrow night. At 9pm. We live over an hour from their house. So he wouldn't get home until probably after 11. Ugh. He should say no. Hopefully he'll stay strong. Anyway, we were here on Saturday. We were doing some painting at a house Alfred bought through work and took a little break for lunch with Ilya and Mercedes.
Lunch turned into drinking some beer, which of course meant speed Uno, which meant less work got done at the house than intended. But we got the painting done, with some assistance from a slightly intoxicated Ilya and slightly more intoxicated Mercedes. They may have been singing the national anthem for a stretch of time. There may be a video or 2. I imagine if there is, it's hilarious.
Sunday was pretty low key. I insisted on going home and then ended up not feeling so great, so I spent a good chunk of the day on the couch. Monday I braved spending the night alone at the house, and lived to tell the tale. (Have I mentioned that the police officer did come by on Thursday and have me ID the guy in a photo line up? I think I got it right, he said our neighbor did so that's good. Still haven't seen that he's been arrested though.) Then last night I came back here to see Alfred and hang out with even more friends! We went to dinner with Lucy and Phil (and Ellie, though she didn't eat much) and their neighbors, Kevin and Gara. We enjoyed a lovely Mexican meal, along with some frozen margaritas for the real women of the group (that would be me and Lucy). Very nice. No pictures. Sorry.
Tonight we're house sitting for the last night. I came back because a) we can watch Weeds episodes on their TV from our laptop, which we cannot do at home, and b) I'm a big old wuss and was scared at home by myself on Monday. In other random news, today was supposed to break high temperature records. Heat index was predicted to reach 99-103 degrees. I was out doing tours for 2 hours straight. Awesome!
Saturday we were house sitting. It's kind of a long boring story, but we weren't going to and then we ended up doing it. I'm sick of the whole ordeal and want out, but Alfred caved. It is a lot closer for him to go to work, so it makes sense, it just makes me mad. I don't like feeling taken advantage of. They asked Alfred to come pick them up at the airport tomorrow night. At 9pm. We live over an hour from their house. So he wouldn't get home until probably after 11. Ugh. He should say no. Hopefully he'll stay strong. Anyway, we were here on Saturday. We were doing some painting at a house Alfred bought through work and took a little break for lunch with Ilya and Mercedes.
Lunch turned into drinking some beer, which of course meant speed Uno, which meant less work got done at the house than intended. But we got the painting done, with some assistance from a slightly intoxicated Ilya and slightly more intoxicated Mercedes. They may have been singing the national anthem for a stretch of time. There may be a video or 2. I imagine if there is, it's hilarious.Sunday was pretty low key. I insisted on going home and then ended up not feeling so great, so I spent a good chunk of the day on the couch. Monday I braved spending the night alone at the house, and lived to tell the tale. (Have I mentioned that the police officer did come by on Thursday and have me ID the guy in a photo line up? I think I got it right, he said our neighbor did so that's good. Still haven't seen that he's been arrested though.) Then last night I came back here to see Alfred and hang out with even more friends! We went to dinner with Lucy and Phil (and Ellie, though she didn't eat much) and their neighbors, Kevin and Gara. We enjoyed a lovely Mexican meal, along with some frozen margaritas for the real women of the group (that would be me and Lucy). Very nice. No pictures. Sorry.
Tonight we're house sitting for the last night. I came back because a) we can watch Weeds episodes on their TV from our laptop, which we cannot do at home, and b) I'm a big old wuss and was scared at home by myself on Monday. In other random news, today was supposed to break high temperature records. Heat index was predicted to reach 99-103 degrees. I was out doing tours for 2 hours straight. Awesome!
Saturday, October 3, 2009
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