It’s a nice feeling to come home and see some one else mowing your lawn. This is probably the 4th time this has happened in 3 years, but it’s better than nothing. Maybe this will be a new trend?
This weekend is the Lovely Tess’s first birthday party. Seriously. How the hell has it already been a year? It’s definitely flown by.
We’ve decided to ditch our original cake plan for the party and now plan on making our own. Of course, that will mean multiple test runs this week along with a full day of cake making on Saturday. Yes, we realize that we’re just asking for trouble and will end up spending more time and money than just ordering one, but we’re dummies like that.
We got ourselves a Flip last week and I’m really pleased with it. Back before Tess was born, I wanted to get a video camera, and even went so far as buying one, trying it out, and then returning it after being really unhappy with the video quality. I knew that I wouldn’t use it that much, I didn’t want another camera to carry around, I’d much prefer taking still photos, and I wouldn’t have the time and energy to deal with tapes or DVD’s and converting and editing and such. But the Flip changes everything. It’s tiny and light and can be thrown in a bag, it takes an hour of digital video, uses AA batteries, and has all of the editing software right on the camera. A USB plug flips out, you plug it into your computer, and it shows all of your videos, lets you edit them, and then gives you options to save them, email them, or directly upload them to youtube. It couldn’t be easier, and the video quality is actually good. I don’t think that any video clip should be longer than 30 seconds or a minute, so this is perfect. So yes, there are now Tess videos up on youtube. Although they are private, so if you want to see them, you have to become my best friend.
A big tree branch fell on the Lovely Suse’s car last week, denting the hood and scratching the headlamp, front fender and left front quarter panel. Sweet. So it’s in the shop for a week. On the bright side, my parents are on vacation, so we’re borrowing one of their cars for the week. The car has all sorts of bells and whistles and buttons and knobs and navigation systems and auto this and heated that. But I realize now that I really like my nice and simple car better. I used to like all of the gadgets, but I just don’t need them or want them anymore. I like that if I want them temperature hotter, I just turn a knob to hot. Maybe I’m just becoming a simpler man.
The Lovely Suse made Rice Krispie Treats last week for her student advisees, and it’s probably been about 15 years since I’ve had one. I used to be able to eat these things by the plateful, but it took me two full days to get through two of them. They’re just so sweet and buttery. And delicious.
I played a fair amount of Wii bowling and tennis last week. My current high score in bowling is a 264. Of course, the Lovely Suse’s is 265. She’s good. Although I whip her ass in tennis. We expect the Lovely Tess’s birthday party to quickly turn into a Wii party.
I made it through my first two classes for school. Hey, only 22 months to go!
I really want to put ceiling fans in the living room and the Lovely Tess’s room, but it’s going to be a lot of work. Unlike in our bedroom, the other two rooms both have ancient electrical boxes, so they’ll need to be cut out of the ceiling, replaced with new ones, I’ll have to deal with the ancient and brittle wiring that’s there, patch the ceiling, and then install the fans. Is it worth it? Yeah, I’ll probably suck it up and just do it. Or hire some one else to do it.
The Lovely Suse celebrated her first Mother’s Day yesterday, and I think she had a pretty good one. A nice relaxing day at home, beautiful weather, a nap with the kids, some tasty meals, and some gifts from the Lovely Tess and George. George is checking out her reiter8 bag made from a recycled sail above.
Greenward is chock full of eco-friendly and well-designed stuff. I wanted to buy everything in the place. It’s like the best of all of the cool stuff I see online all packed into one store. For some reason, I’ve had a difficult time consuming for the sake of consuming lately, but places like this can at least make me feel good about what I’m buying.
Speaking of which, I dented my Sigg bottle yesterday. I dropped it on the floor and now there’s a little ding at the bottom of it. Not a big deal, but now it rocks a little bit. Apparently, these dents are like battle scars, and I should be proud of them. Unfortunately, I didn’t get this scar from being out in the wilderness enjoying nature. I dropped it in my office on the way back from filling it at the water fountain.
After a miserably failed attempt a few weeks ago (and a prior successfully attempt prior to that), I had to give April’s Rosemary Straw Potatoes recipe another shot. I realized that my problem last time was not cutting the spuds thin enough so the insides weren’t cooked fully by the time the outsides were done. That makes for a mushy and soggy tater. I brought in the mandoline to help me out, and they came out every bit as addictively tasty as the first time. I will never attempt to fry a potato at home any other way. I could eat these things all day long, but then, of course, I would be dead in about 12 hours.
This is the last week of my first semester of classes. I think I made it through ok, but I have another 20 months to go. It’s going to be a very long haul.
The Lovely Tess decided to pack in a whole bunch of development all in one weekend. She’s now pulling herself up and walking around the ottoman, she stood up in her crib, she has two more teeth coming in, she waves hello and goodbye to everything and everyone, and she learned to shake her head “no”. That’s a rough one. I get the feeling that the answer to every question now is going to be met with a shaking head. Also every piece of decoration in our house that’s lower than three feet from the floor has been removed. We appologize for the house looking so empty now.
The charcoal grill and our patio furniture made their first appearances of the season. We plan on eating plenty of meals outside this summer. Or at least more than we did last year, which totalled one. We blame the Lovely Tess for that.
We’re in our 30’s and we’re spending our Saturday nights at home playing video games. This is normal, right?
Happy Cinco de Mayo! Go eat some tacos. I know I will tonight.
I’ve been doing some heavy duty Wii training. I was a little sore on Saturday morning after all of the bowling and home run derby. There’s something oddly fun about trying to knock down 99 pins at once.
I have to give some props to The Upper Crust. One recently opened five minutes from our house, and we’ve ordered from there two weeks in a row. They make a thin crust Neapolitan style pie (but without the puffy outer crust) with good quality ingredients, a nice chunky tomato sauce, and they don’t overload their pies with mountains of cheese. They’re thin and crisp and pretty damn tasty, and they practically seem good for you since they’re so light. They’re not cheap, but I think the price is justified for what it is. Armando’s still holds a special place in our hearts, but I’m willing to spread our pizza love around. They’re totally different styles, and it’s nice having options nearby. Oh, and Tess ate a whole slice by herself. She just sits there saying “yum yum yum yum yum” while shoving it in her face as fast as she can. Yes, she’s our daughter.
After 8 years of use, it was finally time to replace my grill grates. There is 8 years worth of grease and gunk caked on the bottom of them, so they were constantly catching fire. Plus, they were starting to rust and corrode, which isn’t something you really want in your food. I replaced the enameled cast-iron grates with stainless steel ones, so we’ll see how well they work. The first run with them last night was successful, so I think I’ll be happy with them.
Happy birthday to George. He turned 2 last Friday. Tess has been giving him a run for his money lately, and she’s completely fascinated with his crate. She’ll scoot over to it, open and close the door (sometimes with him inside), she’ll take out his food dish, try to eat his food, and then start putting her toys inside. Poor George just looks violated.
I’ve spoken often of the glory of the tonno sandwich at Domenic’s, but they also make a fantatic chocolate chip cookie. Sharing a tonno sandwich, a bag of salt and vinegar potato chips, a limonata, and a chocolate chip cookie is a pretty perfect way to spend lunch.
I composted all week, and I have to say, I’m hooked. Instead of throwing my vegetable scraps down the disposal or in the trash, I just keep a bowl next to me while I’m cooking and throw everything in there. When we’re finished cleaning up after dinner, I just dump the bowl in the composter outside. There were nights that we didn’t have to use the garbage disposal at all. I don’t really care that much about the actual compost that it will produce, but I just like the idea of all of this stuff breaking down naturally. I think I can get used to this.
