us? house sitting? weird!

We've expanded our client base: we spent the weekend house and dog sitting for one of my co workers. We did our best to take advantage of being in a different place. We went out for sangria and appetizers for dinner on Friday, then got some tacos afterwards when we were still a little hungry. Saturday morning I had to go into work for a couple hours, then we met up with Charles, a friend of Alfred's from high school. For those of you who were at our wedding, he was one of our groomsmen, the one with the Superman belt. He was in a bodybuilding competition that day and came to have lunch with us during the break between shows. He hung out with us for the afternoon (and took a nap) before heading back for his evening show. This picture is from his show. He came in fourth in his division. The dog kept licking his feet. Apparently the paint-on tan stuff tastes good to dogs.

Ilya and Mercedes came to join us later in the afternoon, so we drank and played Uno for a couple of hours. The two of them were dominating, especially Mercedes, but I managed to win twice, and Alfred once. After he won his game he decided we were done, so he ended up as the final winner. After Charles left for his competition, we went back to the sangria place for some more drinking and food, and ended up getting pizza and wings for dinner. Pretty healthy stuff. Charles came back to the house after his competition and was attempting to drink a gallon of milk in an hour, but apparently his body was sick and tired of abuse (he hadn't been drinking anything for a few days so that his muscles popped out better or something) and he didn't get very far. Thank God. I was not looking forward to a gallon of white vomit.

Today we headed back home after feeding and walking the dog one last time. This dog, by the way, was pretty weird. This dog was a poop machine, loves car rides to the point of insanity, and searches for cigarette butts to eat when on a walk. There are no sidewalks in their neighborhood, so you have to walk in the street. Twice when I was walking him after dark I totally left his poop in the middle of the road. I'm not touching that. Alfred was a good person and picked up after him. Anyway, we just got finished watching the Jaguars game and eating leftover pizza and wings from last night. We also made beer floats to go with the meal. The game, food, and floats were all good. In fact, a pretty good weekend overall.

It's weird

60 degrees feels so much colder in Florida than it does in New York.

we've found a better maid

This maid only comes once a week, and the day he comes tends to change from one week to the next, but today when I came home from work all the dishes were done and a delicious dinner of fish ceviche was waiting for me! Someone's laundry hasn't been put away yet, but the ceviche made up for it. Plus he watched last night's So You Think You Can Dance with me (which was not great, by the way). What a guy.

In other news, it's Veteran's Day. Here's a picture to dispel the solemn, honorable mental image that phrase might conjure up for you. Yes, this fine young knight is off defending our country. Go visit Mike's blog for a up close and personal view of his life in the army. This picture makes me want a beer.

On another totally unrelated note... one of the reasons we live in Florida is no longer alive. Back in summer 2002, Alfred moved to Washington DC after he graduated college. I was all psyched to join him after I graduated the next year. And then the sniper thing started. You may remember the month or so that fall when people living in the DC area were basically terrified to go outside because of the random sniper attacks taking place. It was one of the things that made Alfred decide to move back to Florida. Well, last night one of the snipers was executed. The other one is serving a life sentence. And I didn't get to move to DC. Jerks.

Sunday, Sunday

Yesterday we were like a couple of crazy errand-running fools. We got up bright and early (because for some reason I'm losing the ability to sleep when it's light out, and with the time change I haven't been able to sleep in. I was having a weird dream about zombies the other morning once the sun came up. Unrelated to the story at hand) so I even had time to exercise before we had to leave. Our morning was very carefully planned out. We left at 9:45 and arrived at Babies R Us to shop for the shower at about 10:20. We were done there by about 10:50 and only had to head across the street for an early lunch at Chipotle! (Another tangent: did anyone see the South Park episode a few weeks ago where they said eating Chipotle made you crap blood? They made fun of the show Ghost Hunters in the same episode. It was funny.) Anyway, I tried the pork for a change, which was delicious, and Alfred had his usual (chicken fajita burrito with black beans added). We actually had to wait about 5 minutes before they opened. We were their second customers.

After lunch, we went to pick up some grass fed ground beef from the farm that we've gotten it from before. The owner wasn't there, which was good because we were on a schedule and we would have been there chatting for awhile. We made it home by about 12:40. Plenty of time for me to get ready and wrap the gift (aka put it in the gift bag with some tissue paper.) All of that, with a lot of driving, in only 3 hours!

(I found a funny ecard to go in this post, but I can't get it to copy for some reason. Go here to see it. Then come back. Thanks.)

The shower was nice, even though I didn't know anyone. Well, I know Allison, the pregnant one, and I'd met one of her cousins before. She had a rubber duckie theme, it was really cute. And I bought her a bunch of bath things, so I fit right in. We played a game where we had to come up with as many words out of the baby's name as we could. I did terribly. I got 17. The winner got 45. No melted candy bars in diapers, so that was good.

After I got home from the shower we pretty much just relaxed. We caught up on a bit of TV, made some pizzas on naan for dinner (we're trying to be creative and use up some of the random stuff in the pantry), and that was about it. An excellent Sunday, if I do say so myself.

paying our debts

To the couch surfing society, that is. We hosted couch surfers the other night! A couple from Germany, actually. They're traveling around the eastern US for 4 weeks. They started in the Bahamas, then flew to Miami, and are driving up and around and ending up in Atlanta. They only spent one night here, so we didn't spend a whole lot of time with them, but it was still fun. It was interesting being in the opposite position from what we were in all summer. It's hard to come up with something interesting to do so your guests aren't bored, which is especially difficult because we don't exactly live in the most exciting area. Luckily they kept themselves busy (and even had dinner) and didn't even get to our house until about 8:00. And I left for work at 7 the next morning. Alfred did stay home and make them breakfast, so that was nice. It was fun hearing about their trip, and they both spoke excellent English.

On a completely unrelated note, I'm all sorts of party-rific this weekend! Yesterday evening I went to a birthday party for a co-worker. There were s'mores and many rounds of pictionary. I wasn't sure what to expect, but it ended up being really fun. Tomorrow I have a baby shower for another co-worker. I found out about it on Thursday, so I haven't bought a gift yet. I better get on that. And last but certainly not least, yesterday was my dad's birthday! Happy birthday Dad!

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.

halloween goodness

Alfred got my camera back (I left it at Ilya and Mercedes' house by mistake the other day) and came home tonight, so I have both pictures and internet! In other words, I get to post! So here are my pictures of our Halloween Festival this past weekend. Here's our fancy sign and Jack the Scarecrow driving the tractor.

I actually did get to drive that tractor a couple of weeks ago. It had been sitting in the museum, and when they started working on construction in that area they decided to move it out front. So one of the guys tied it to his truck bumper and had me steer while he towed it. It was bumpy. But pretty fun. I got a lot of looks. Anyway! Here's a picture of some pirates and a princess. Their dad was a pirate as well.

Some cute little kids with the curliest hair I've ever seen, plus one of our guides all dressed up to scare people.

One of the Dorothys. Her dog was not named Toto, though. Her name was Poochie. The angel was cute too, though Mario was definitely one of my favorites. He was a little camera shy. He did not have a Luigi. Now that would be cute for two little boys.

This car was probably my favorite costume. He kept saying "honk honk" as he walked around. It was so creative and cute and he was having so much fun with it, and all it really was was a cardboard box. Awesome.

And the best family costumes: our other Dorothy, along with a Scarecrow and slightly homicidal looking Tin Man. That mask is seriously creepy looking. Apparently it was hot, too.

We actually turned a profit on the event, so I'd say it was a success. We sold some drinks and some of the craft people sold some stuff too, but we ended up giving away the popcorn and cookies because no one was buying any. Disappointing, considering how much time I spent on my dman cookies, but at least we know for next year. The end!