First of all, congrats to Allison and her husband on their freshly born baby! Little Gabriel arrived Monday morning, safe and sound, though he caused a bit of drama by deciding not to cooperate and necessitating a surprise c-section. I stopped by the hospital after work today to say hi and visit, and to bring Allison some chocolate from Claude's. He's very cute, and she looked damn good, especially considering what she went through yesterday. So, congratulations all around!
We were actually quite social this weekend. Kevin called Alfred on Saturday and asked if we were busy, (which, other than packing, we were not) so we met them for an extended lunch (complete with plenty of colorful drinks) and then did a little sightseeing, for free of course. Then on Sunday we headed up to Alfred's parents' house for the Super Bowl. This involved even more eating and drinking. Plenty of frozen margaritas to go around. I think I watched about 10 minutes of football. So, plenty.
Other than that, most of our time over the past several days has been spent cleaning, organizing, packing, and getting things together to donate to Goodwill. They're really going to get to know me over there. So if posts are a little sparse for the rest of the week, that's why.
Showing posts with label football. Show all posts
Showing posts with label football. Show all posts
Tuesday, February 9, 2010
Wednesday, November 4, 2009
rib off!
(No pictures today, unfortunately we had no camera this Sunday because I had accidentally left it at Ilya and Mercedes' house. My bad.) This past Sunday we had a big event: the first ever Meat Off competition between Alfred and Kevin. They both have smokers, and when we were at Universal a few weeks back they got to talking and came up with the great idea to have competitions to see who's best at preparing various meat products. The first competition was ribs. Alfred makes some awesome ribs, but he was doubting himself a bit. He even tried a totally new recipe a week or so before the Rib Off, but it kind of sucked so he ended up going with his old standby for the competition. Anyway, I/we spent Sunday morning cooking: he started his ribs and helped with the cole slaw, and I finished the cole slaw and made cornbread and macaroni and cheese.
The rib off was at Kevin and Gara's house, and they had invited a whole crew to help us eat and judge. In the end I think there were about 12 people there. We watched the Jaguars game technically, but they played so badly that by the end only 1 person was paying any attention. I was a little worried we wouldn't have enough food, but in the end we had a ton of ribs, pulled pork, our sides, baked beans, cupcakes, and Oreo cheesecake (which was flipping amazing). And lots of beer. And tequila. And I think some rum and vodka. I managed to get away with only 1 tequila shot, plus several beers, while Alfred enjoyed at least 5 shots of tequila and God knows how many beers. Yeah, he was still drunk the next morning. I imagine Lucy had to prepare some formula for Ellie that night. They were playing that stupid game where you hit the top of someone's beer bottle with the bottom of yours and make their beer foam up, and glass ended up everywhere. I say "they" because I hate that game and steered clear. There was a dance party in the living room at one point; someone hit their head on the light fixture on the ceiling. It was really a lot of fun, hanging out with friends and eating a ton of good food. The cheesecake and mac and cheese were fan favorites, and as far as the ribs were concerned, general consensus was that Alfred's ribs edged out Kevin's. Which is good, because I kind of told him I wouldn't love him anymore if I didn't like his ribs better. But I did, so our marriage is safe. For now.... I hear Kevin makes a mean pork shoulder.
The rib off was at Kevin and Gara's house, and they had invited a whole crew to help us eat and judge. In the end I think there were about 12 people there. We watched the Jaguars game technically, but they played so badly that by the end only 1 person was paying any attention. I was a little worried we wouldn't have enough food, but in the end we had a ton of ribs, pulled pork, our sides, baked beans, cupcakes, and Oreo cheesecake (which was flipping amazing). And lots of beer. And tequila. And I think some rum and vodka. I managed to get away with only 1 tequila shot, plus several beers, while Alfred enjoyed at least 5 shots of tequila and God knows how many beers. Yeah, he was still drunk the next morning. I imagine Lucy had to prepare some formula for Ellie that night. They were playing that stupid game where you hit the top of someone's beer bottle with the bottom of yours and make their beer foam up, and glass ended up everywhere. I say "they" because I hate that game and steered clear. There was a dance party in the living room at one point; someone hit their head on the light fixture on the ceiling. It was really a lot of fun, hanging out with friends and eating a ton of good food. The cheesecake and mac and cheese were fan favorites, and as far as the ribs were concerned, general consensus was that Alfred's ribs edged out Kevin's. Which is good, because I kind of told him I wouldn't love him anymore if I didn't like his ribs better. But I did, so our marriage is safe. For now.... I hear Kevin makes a mean pork shoulder.
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.
Tuesday, April 28, 2009
explanation of the white trashiness
(Mike, I timed it, it took me a total of 39 minutes to complete this post, start to finish. Drunk blogging, which you have seen, is totally different from my normal, sober blogging. Although I am about halfway through a Kahlua and cream (aka skim milk) right now.)
So we spent another weekend as vagrants. After work on Friday I headed up to meet Alfred and his parents for dinner near the house we've been working on (the one we've been painting and staying at here and there, not the model.) We spent the night at that house, then spent all morning and early afternoon Saturday looking for dining room furniture for the model. We were sort of in a hurry because I had to head back to work that afternoon, hence Alfred slurping down some leftovers for lunch as we sat in traffic in the truck. It was total class.
After work I did some shopping, then headed back up to pick Ellery up at work and meet Alfred at his parents' house. Max and Robyn had tickets to see Wicked (which I'm totally jealous of) so we were in charge of getting Ellery home. We ended up staying for dinner and then spending the night. By the way, if you ever wonder if there's anyone out there who actually watches the NFL draft, wonder no more. Yes, Ellery recorded and watched (though with some fast forwarding) the entire thing.
Sunday we did a little more furniture searching, found a great table at Walmart that they no longer carry, then headed back to the model with all of our loot so I could set things up. We also got to meet up with Ilya and Mercedes for lunch at 5 Guys. And so, without any further ado, I present model pictures. First, the bathroom downstairs:
The master bedroom:
Master bath:
Kids' bedroom (fun fact: the bottom bunk has a mattress, the top bunk has a box spring. Total bitch to make it):
There are several toys in the toy box, and a couple of Dr. Seuss books on top of the dresser.
Baby room:
We plan to add a couple of pieces of furniture to this side, I forgot to get them at Ikea.
And my personal favorite, the kids' bathroom:
How cute is this set?? I would like this for my own bathroom!
I also found a set at Walmart that had sea creatures on the shower curtain, the soap dispenser has an octopus on it, the soap dish is a turtle, and the toothbrush holder is a lobster who holds the toothbrushes in his claws and tail. Freaking adorable! I need kids so I have an excuse to buy that shit. Or maybe not. Also, there's no attic, so no, we're not living here.
So that's where all the Ikea stuff went. Keep in mind, all of that furniture cost about $2200. Not bad. I bought a bunch of knick knacks for the kitchen, so I'll take a picture of that when I set it all up. Unfortunately Hobby Lobby doesn't carry aby fake fruit bowls in which to hide boxes of cereal. We still need to buy a table for the eating nook in the kitchen, and either a table or couch for the living room area. No one has quite decided on that yet. But thank God, we're almost done. As much fun as it's been to spend other people's money, it's getting to be a bit of a pain in the ass.
So we spent another weekend as vagrants. After work on Friday I headed up to meet Alfred and his parents for dinner near the house we've been working on (the one we've been painting and staying at here and there, not the model.) We spent the night at that house, then spent all morning and early afternoon Saturday looking for dining room furniture for the model. We were sort of in a hurry because I had to head back to work that afternoon, hence Alfred slurping down some leftovers for lunch as we sat in traffic in the truck. It was total class.
After work I did some shopping, then headed back up to pick Ellery up at work and meet Alfred at his parents' house. Max and Robyn had tickets to see Wicked (which I'm totally jealous of) so we were in charge of getting Ellery home. We ended up staying for dinner and then spending the night. By the way, if you ever wonder if there's anyone out there who actually watches the NFL draft, wonder no more. Yes, Ellery recorded and watched (though with some fast forwarding) the entire thing.
Sunday we did a little more furniture searching, found a great table at Walmart that they no longer carry, then headed back to the model with all of our loot so I could set things up. We also got to meet up with Ilya and Mercedes for lunch at 5 Guys. And so, without any further ado, I present model pictures. First, the bathroom downstairs:
The master bedroom:
Master bath:
Kids' bedroom (fun fact: the bottom bunk has a mattress, the top bunk has a box spring. Total bitch to make it):
There are several toys in the toy box, and a couple of Dr. Seuss books on top of the dresser.
Baby room:
We plan to add a couple of pieces of furniture to this side, I forgot to get them at Ikea. 
And my personal favorite, the kids' bathroom:
How cute is this set?? I would like this for my own bathroom!
I also found a set at Walmart that had sea creatures on the shower curtain, the soap dispenser has an octopus on it, the soap dish is a turtle, and the toothbrush holder is a lobster who holds the toothbrushes in his claws and tail. Freaking adorable! I need kids so I have an excuse to buy that shit. Or maybe not. Also, there's no attic, so no, we're not living here.So that's where all the Ikea stuff went. Keep in mind, all of that furniture cost about $2200. Not bad. I bought a bunch of knick knacks for the kitchen, so I'll take a picture of that when I set it all up. Unfortunately Hobby Lobby doesn't carry aby fake fruit bowls in which to hide boxes of cereal. We still need to buy a table for the eating nook in the kitchen, and either a table or couch for the living room area. No one has quite decided on that yet. But thank God, we're almost done. As much fun as it's been to spend other people's money, it's getting to be a bit of a pain in the ass.
Monday, September 22, 2008
Alfred's birthday weekend
Well, we certainly had an action-packed weekend. Mike came to visit, and of course we celebrated Alfred's birthday. We got things off to a rousing start with a pizza dinner and the obligatory power hour. We now have a regular waitress at the restaurant we've been going to the last few weekends for their 2 for 1 pints of beer. She joined in on betting how many minutes it would be before Ilya started hiccuping (he's a cartoon drunk). Sadly, we all lost, but when Mike's war wound made an appearance, she comped all his beer for the night. Score!
The next morning Alfred got to open his presents, including this gem from Mike:
Now they can be twinsies! We went to breakfast (somehow we didn't make it to the gym), then went shopping to kill some time. World Market was first. We wandered the store awhile, then decided to set a place setting with comically large items so we could pretend to be tiny.
Then, of course, we had to set a ridiculously tiny place setting so we could feel giant:
An employee came over and asked if he could help us while we were gathering our tiny items. I told him no thanks, we were just looking.
Next we hit up Target, where I (accidentally) made fun of a little girl's Halloween costume. Ok, I purposely made fun of the costume, I just didn't realize that it was hanging on someone's cart and that they were 5 feet away from me as I did so. Somehow we managed to accomplish our mission, which was to buy awesome socks to go bowling in:
Then proceeded to go bowling:
After bowling three rounds and each winning once (with yours truly managing to get the high score of the day, after a dismal 59 on the first game) we headed to a liquor store to stock up on some essentials: liquor, beer, and cigars. We bought a 2 for 1 gift set of Kahlua, then went back to the house and proceeded to plow through 1 and 1/2 of the bottles. Then we played with some antique armor.
It was pretty tiring, but luckily we had some coffee with our Kahlua so we were good to go. We headed out for another pizza dinner, and plenty more beer.
The evening proved both fun and educational, as we learned a handy little party trick along the way:
It's much more impressive looking in person.
The next morning Alfred got to open his presents, including this gem from Mike:
Now they can be twinsies! We went to breakfast (somehow we didn't make it to the gym), then went shopping to kill some time. World Market was first. We wandered the store awhile, then decided to set a place setting with comically large items so we could pretend to be tiny.
Then, of course, we had to set a ridiculously tiny place setting so we could feel giant:
An employee came over and asked if he could help us while we were gathering our tiny items. I told him no thanks, we were just looking.Next we hit up Target, where I (accidentally) made fun of a little girl's Halloween costume. Ok, I purposely made fun of the costume, I just didn't realize that it was hanging on someone's cart and that they were 5 feet away from me as I did so. Somehow we managed to accomplish our mission, which was to buy awesome socks to go bowling in:
Then proceeded to go bowling:
After bowling three rounds and each winning once (with yours truly managing to get the high score of the day, after a dismal 59 on the first game) we headed to a liquor store to stock up on some essentials: liquor, beer, and cigars. We bought a 2 for 1 gift set of Kahlua, then went back to the house and proceeded to plow through 1 and 1/2 of the bottles. Then we played with some antique armor.
It was pretty tiring, but luckily we had some coffee with our Kahlua so we were good to go. We headed out for another pizza dinner, and plenty more beer. 
The evening proved both fun and educational, as we learned a handy little party trick along the way:
It's much more impressive looking in person.Sunday was sort of low key: we went out for brunch, Mike checked out a bunch of girls, pretty standard. Then we sat around outside and smoked some cigars, even though it was kind of drizzly and crappy out. Not a good weekend for swimming, unfortunately. Mike headed back to GA that afternoon, and we headed over to Max and Robyn's to watch all but the last minute of the Jaguars game (it got cut off by the dvr, which kind of sucked because it was the best minute of the game, or so we assume). All in all, a good weekend. And I should think that this post should earn me at least a couple of picture-less posts in the future, no?
Monday, September 15, 2008
Alfred's birthday celebration weekend
I love getting all these comments! 
I feel so popular. :) Yes, the tiramisu was delicious. I mean like super delicious. And there wasn't even any chocolate in it. So you know it must have been good.
We had a good weekend, Saturday was fun with Alfred's birthday party. We had an awesome meal at his parents' house: ceviche with red snapper and scallops, caesar salad with steak and shrimp, and of course the tiramisu. It was great. We ate at about 3:00 and didn't even need dinner, we were so stuffed. We all got to dress up like Superman, and Robyn bought these little potato guns that you stabbed into a potato then shot the little potato nugget out. They were really fun, we all had little starchy spots on our clothes from shooting each other. And there were about 10 pounds of potato bits on the porch afterwards.
Sunday we went over to his parents' house again to watch the Bills/Jaguars game. That game is always fun, because of course I root for the Bills while everyone else is rooting for the Jaguars. It's even better when Buffalo wins, like they did yesterday! So I have bragging rights for another year. Not that I really follow football all that much anymore, but it's still fun. Plus I got pizza and wings, and we finished the tiramisu.
The other thing that happened this weekend is that gas went up. Stupid Ike. It went up from 25 to more than 60 cents a gallon at different stations. Luckily I had heard that it was supposed to go way up and got it on Saturday morning, by Saturday evening it had already gone up and some places had actually run out. So that sucks.
One last thing: happy first anniversary to Rosemary and Greg!
I feel so popular. :) Yes, the tiramisu was delicious. I mean like super delicious. And there wasn't even any chocolate in it. So you know it must have been good.We had a good weekend, Saturday was fun with Alfred's birthday party. We had an awesome meal at his parents' house: ceviche with red snapper and scallops, caesar salad with steak and shrimp, and of course the tiramisu. It was great. We ate at about 3:00 and didn't even need dinner, we were so stuffed. We all got to dress up like Superman, and Robyn bought these little potato guns that you stabbed into a potato then shot the little potato nugget out. They were really fun, we all had little starchy spots on our clothes from shooting each other. And there were about 10 pounds of potato bits on the porch afterwards.
Sunday we went over to his parents' house again to watch the Bills/Jaguars game. That game is always fun, because of course I root for the Bills while everyone else is rooting for the Jaguars. It's even better when Buffalo wins, like they did yesterday! So I have bragging rights for another year. Not that I really follow football all that much anymore, but it's still fun. Plus I got pizza and wings, and we finished the tiramisu.The other thing that happened this weekend is that gas went up. Stupid Ike. It went up from 25 to more than 60 cents a gallon at different stations. Luckily I had heard that it was supposed to go way up and got it on Saturday morning, by Saturday evening it had already gone up and some places had actually run out. So that sucks.
One last thing: happy first anniversary to Rosemary and Greg!
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