Happy Birthday!

If you see my awesome mother-in-law, Becky (or BBJr. as Freddy likes to call her), make sure you wish her a very HAPPY BIRTHDAY today! Also, a Happy Belated BD to Griff, who turned 12 yesterday...

Duckpins Kicked My Ass

I didn't tell you about our weekend, did I? Friday night was the usual... dinner with my parents. Afterwards, John and I tried to get a Misto at Rita's but they were closed (a few minutes before 9:00 PM, I might add!). So we decided to check out the new Coldstone Creamery down the street from our house. After waiting in line for about 7 minutes with no movement, John decided he wasn't going to wait 45 minutes for ice cream (like some of our friends did over the summer). Has anyone out there been to a Coldstone? Is it really worth the wait to get ice cream with "mix-ins"? I mean, really... it's freakin' ice cream.

Saturday night, John and I were in Bethesda so I could use the gc my brother gave me for the Knit+Stitch=Bliss yarn store. Afterwards, we went over to pick up something at my parents' and then headed to William's to watch some basketball and eat some yummy chicken. Both games had moments of excitement, but mostly just frustration. Was it the Memphis game? I don't remember, but both teams just sucked!

Sunday night, we met up with some friends at the College Park bowling alley for party thrown by Alison in honor of Handsome Matt's birthday. Here's Freddy trying to pick up a spare:



It was a fun little party... pizza, beer, nachos and CAKE!


Happy Birthday, Matt!

I have to tell ya... my legs are sore! I only bowled one game, but it's been tough to sit down, stand up and go up and down stairs the past two days. I'm soooooo out of shape! I really need to start working out and stop eating so much crap... as soon as I finish this delicious Mango Misto I'm sipping on while blogging tonight.

As promised, here are the pictures of our kitchen countertops:


Before - green laminate


During - Johnny ripped off the old countertops with his bare hands! LOL


After - beautiful, shiny Zodiaq Borealis Blue

It really is beautiful. My pics don't do it justice. We're gonna replace the cabinet knobs, probably with stainless steel looking ones to match the new sink. And I'm scouting out tile websites for the backsplash. John has a box of plain white ones he used for the kitchen in his old house, but I'm not sure how we're going to use them yet. Stay tuned!

One more note: Our thoughts and prayers go out to our friend, Al, and his family. His dad passed away last Saturday and we went to the viewing tonight. Although it was good to see Al, Nancy and friends we hadn't seen in a while, we wish it had been under happier circumstances.

Heading off to get my 7 hours of zzzz's. Catch ya later!

So Sleepy

Is it wrong to get home from eating dinner out and pretty much head straight to bed? I guess if I had been out for hours with friends having dinner at 8:00 PM and it was 11:30 PM, this would be OK. John and I went out to California Tortilla and got home around 7:10 PM. And I went to bed. I think there's something wrong with me...

I've been very sleepy lately. I think I get enough sleep -- about 7 hours a night. Maybe I need to eat more "energy" foods. I've been eating pretty much the same work week foods for a while now. Yogurt and a Diet Pepsi for breakfast. A turkey or ham sandwich for lunch, maybe some chips. Cheddar goldfish or granola bar for a snack. Water throughout the day -- sometimes spiked with those new Crystal Light (or whatever brand) flavor packets. We've been eating dinner out (or ordering take-out) quite a bit lately 'cuz I'm too sleepy to cook when I get home from work. Maybe it's my allergy meds (which say they're "non-drowsy"). Tragic.

One More Day to Borealis

After a lot of trips to all the local DIY stores to look at samples, John took the plunge a few weeks ago and plunked down 1/3 of the payment for a new countertop -- Zodiaq in Borealis Blue. It's gonna be installed tomorrow! YEA!

Yesterday, we emptied out all the lower cabinets and John started prying up the old countertop. Tonight, we'll be pulling out the drawers and taking off Mossy Green to make way for Borealis Blue. Oh, and I need to find a box for all the cleaning supplies under the sink.

The next step will be tiling the backsplash. I soooooo want to get the sea glass tile, but at $5 a tile, the phrase "That's CRAZY talk" keeps popping into my mind when I think about it. Yesterday on HGTV or DIY, they did a kitchen renovation show with Alton Brown as the celebrity consultant and he used a round tile for part of the backsplash. It was really cute, but not for the style of our kitchen. I really like those "subway" tiles -- the rectangular ones you stagger. I'm leaning towards mixing media too. Maybe do a few rows of white or blue subway tile as the base, some sea glass mosaics as an accent and regular square tiles set diagonally on the top.

Stay tuned! "Before", hopefully some "During" (if Johnny doesn't think it's too dorky to take pics of the countertop installers at work), and "After" pics to come.

News from TX

I got an e-mail this morning with an announcement as only William could convey:

"Look what fell out of Heidi!"

This is little Isabel Marie, who is a cutie just like big sister Sophia Rose. Congrats, Heidi and John! Hugs to you from DC.

Tiddly Winks

Do you remember this game from childhood? It's a bunch of little plastic disks about the size of a dime and you have a bigger one (quarter size) that you press on the edge of the smaller disk. The goal is to shoot the little disk into some kind of cup (or in this case, a sectional dish with points varying from 5 to 100).

Anyone who knows me can tell you I really do enjoy my job as a technical writer. I like developing documentation and user guides. The creative aspect of doctoring up images is FUN. Not so fun is trying to document something that doesn't work properly or isn't completed yet (or doesn't exist). This has been the case for the past few months. How does tech writing relate to Tiddly Winks???

As a stress reliever (and for the sake of nostalgia), one of my co-workers saw this game at a discount store and bought it. We played a round (to 250 points). And I won!!! Woohoo!

My manager has been left to field calls and bear the brunt of the fallout from a system implementation gone awry, although none of this is her fault. Our group didn't have time to properly test the new and improved (did I mention NOT COMPLETED) "system" nor did we have time to properly test the back-up plan (a last minute idea as well). So, to my buddy, K, I say, GO TIDDLE SOME WINKS!

When Grapes Meet Chicken and Cilantro

This weekend was full of late nights. John and I met up with Mike, Joe and Nancy at the Greene Turtle for some St. Pat's festivities. I've never been there on a major drinking holiday falling on a weekend night. That place was PACKED! We left around 11:30 or so and there was a line of people waiting to get in.

Saturday night, I went to Laurie's for an MCBC girl's night with my famous Chicken & Grape salad in hand. Everyone wanted the recipe, but if you know me and Thai food, I don't measure. I put stuff in, taste it, adjust it, and voila! I learned this bojangling technique from my mom, who measures spoonfuls of ingredients using a plastic brown serving spoon. When translating recipes for my sister-in-law, my mom will say, "a spoonful of fish sauce", which could be really like two tablespoons. What's worse is she may not exactly fill the whole spoon. I, on the other hand, bypass the spoon thing all together. Straight from the bottle of fish sauce for me. A couple swishes. If it needs more, a couple more swishes. Lime juice? I cut the lime in half and squeeze directly into the dish. How much juice came out of that lime? Who knows? Could have been a teaspoon, could have been 10. That's why you taste it! The problem is I know what it's supposed to taste like, so to someone who hasn't had this dish before, that could be a problem.

Here's my attempt at noting the recipe for the MCBC. I'm more than happy to come by and taste your version to see if it's right! Or contact me if you need help.

Chicken & Grape Salad
3-4 skinless chicken breasts
3 cups grapes (any seedless variety)
2 T fried garlic
2 T fried shallots
1/2 cup chopped fresh cilantro

Dressing:
1/3 cup fresh squeezed lime juice
1/4 cup fish sauce

[1] Bring 2-3 quarts of water (enough to cover chicken) to a boil. Add a teaspoon or so of salt. Place chicken in boiling water and turn burner to medium-low (not a rolling boil, but not too low). After a few minutes, skim off any gunk from the top of the pot. Simmer for about 20 minutes. Don't OVERCOOK! I checked to see if it was done by using a thermometer (180 degrees). I also cut into the middle of the thickest piece of chicken, but I don’t really like to cut into it because then it tends to dry out if I have to cook it longer

[2] Remove chicken and set in a covered bowl to cool. The chicken broth can be saved for soup (or just toss it)

[3] Once chicken has cooled, shred it by hand by tearing into thin strips with the grain of the meat, as chunky or delicate as you can bear, as this is a tedious task... I usually park myself at the dining table where I can see the TV

[4] Mix lime juice and fish sauce, pour over shredded chicken and mix

[5] Add fried garlic, fried shallots and chopped cilantro. Add grapes (cut them in half if they seem big) and mix. Taste it for seasoning... if you like it more “perky”, add a little more lime juice. If you think it’s too tart, add a little more fish sauce or a little salt

Serve cool or at room temperature.

This recipe is very flexible. Use as much or as little of the grapes, garlic, shallots or cilantro as you like (or have on hand). My mom has also added shrimp and substituted tart apples for grapes. Traditionally, this recipe was a way to use up tart grapes, but I like the sweet ones as a contrast to the savory of the dressing.

Fried garlic and fried shallots (or red onion, as the package says) can be purchased at most Asian markets. I used to peel, thinly slice and fry garlic and shallots myself, but it can really stink up your house. Even though homemade tastes better, the stuff you buy at the market is a lot easier!

In other news, I'm not doing so well in the 2 NCAA pools I've entered. So many upsets! In one of my pools, you only pick the first two rounds' games and then start this week off by picking from the winners. Hopefully, I'll do a little better... although who knows if "Bradley", whoever they are, will beat #1 Memphis. Meh!

Logo

... no, not the cable station geared towards the gay community, but a new project! Best pal, Weelay Magillay, asked me to work on designing something for him and I have some samples, but need to do some physical cutting and pasting to finish it. I don't have all the proper software to do it digitally, otherwise, I'd have it done by now.

I hope it turns out as cool as I think it will (in my mind)! My last project (outside of knitting) was the Joe Head John and I made in September. SO. MUCH. FUN. It turned out better than I imagined. Maybe I'll be able to get the logo done tonight, but I'm so into knitting my second felted bag! I can't stop thinking about when I can get to work on it again. TRAGIC.

Last night, we took my dad out for his B-day at the Korean BBQ joint in Wheaton. It's been forever since we last ate there. I love the beef short ribs and all the little side dishes they serve. I'm not a fan of kimchee (spicy pickled cabbage) though. I like the bean sprouts, watercress and pickled daicon radish. YUM!

I should have taken a pic of the BBQ thing they have in the middle of the table (I suffer from Camnesia - forgetting my camera all the time). Korean BBQ places used to be more like a self-service Benihana, where you would cook the meat yourself, but now the waitress does all the flipping of the meat for you. Whenever she'd leave the table to get something, we'd grab the tongs. I don't think she liked that very much. You know, health code violations and all. I like my beef on the rare side and she left it there to turn into a leather strap! I grabbed rare pieces off the grill with my chopsticks. No leather straps for me!

OK... must get back to the real world. Holla!

Finished!

Sadly, the Terps couldn't get past BC (ok... got SPANKED, as John commented) on Friday night in the ACC tournament. I soooo wish BC was able to beat Duke today. Very exciting game though. Man, we all hate Duke, don't we???


My felted bag

Before we left for the beach cottage on Saturday morning, I was able to put the finishing touches on my B4 Bag by sewing on the buttons. I took a bunch of pictures to send to the designer of the bag. Maybe she'll put my bag on her website so the world can see my creation! While down in L-town, I stopped in to visit Crazy for Ewe and bought some Noro Kureyon yarn for the next one. I think I'm going to make the next one without the boobles and buttons. It will be a little shorter than this one with a plain section, beaded section and another plain section. It was really fun to make... and quick!

In other news... well, there really isn't any. Johnny and I tried the new Arizona Pizza down in L-town. It was quite yummy! Nice, thin wood-fired pizza. We enjoyed the BBQ Chicken one for lunch. On our way home today, we stopped at RITA's Water Ice!!!! So glad they're open again! They even had my favorite flavor, Wild Black Cherry! John and I had a couple of Mistos with our BK food. Sadly, John's favorite, Mint Chocolate Chip, was not one of the offerings today.

Tomorrow is my dad's 80th b-day, so HAPPY BIRTHDAY, Dad!!!!

Have a great week, everyone!

Too Warm to Work

I can't believe it's freakin' 70-something degrees outside! I should have worn thinner socks and anything other than a sweater to work today. At least it's not my normal winter turtleneck sweater! It's one of those "stuffy, too warm to think" kind of days.

GO TERPS! Maryland won last night and play again tonight. Another 9:30 PM game though. We watched the beginning of last night's game but only for about 15 minutes or so. I'm sure the gang will be getting together to watch MD vs. BC someplace tonight... hopefully at someone's house with a bucket of chicken or some Ledo's pizza!

John and I are planning on going to the beach cottage this weekend, just to hang out. And of course, I have to make my obligatory stop into Crazy for Ewe. It is one of the cutest, most friendly yarn shops! I wish it was in Laurel and not all the way down in Leonardtown. Maybe we'll just head to the hardware store for some paint and get started on our bedroom renovation.

Speaking of renovations... the countertop has been ordered and someone's coming next Friday to take measurements. We went with the Zodiaq Borealis Blue. It's going to be gah-geous! Can't wait to see it installed... bad part is the installation company wants everything out of the lower cabinets when the put the countertop in. Luckily, the drawers can just come out. I guess Phoebe Buffet will be bearing the load on this one!

Till next time, wherever you are this weekend, have fun and be safe!

Politely Exiting a Conversation

I was in a meeting yesterday afternoon that ran past my normal work hours. On my way out, one of my co-workers saw me and thanked me for the (group) card I signed congratulating him on the birth of his first grandchild. After a minute of polite chit chat (Dude! Do you not see I have my coat on and keys in hand???), I started walking towards the reception area, but the guy was still talking! OK... it is 5:30 and I have an hour drive ahead of me but I'll be polite and give this conversation another 30 seconds. If it was someone I was closer to or my boss, I wouldn't have cared, but the conversation was really just awkward.

Thank Mutta Hubba it wasn't much longer before I escaped. I generally like my co-workers, some more than others; they're all pretty nice. This guy, however, seems to get on the nerves of many people in the office. I don't tend to care that much, probably 'cuz I'm still new. He told one girl she ought to have a baby. She was furious about his comment (some people are sensitive about that topic?) and wanted to tell him to go F*** himself. I guess he wants everyone to share his joy at being a grandfather by telling every woman she should have a kid.

So John and I went to dinner and I was relaying these stories to him. I guess if I were more assertive, I could have said something like, "My husband's waiting on me, we have dinner plans". John suggested, "Gotta go... I'm ovulating."

Comments and Such

Just thought I'd respond to some recent comments on my posts...

To BHL on the "Gadgets" post: It's a bubble blower... what did you think it was? hee hee

To bjciii and Doug on the "Nick's" post: I've never actually carried out my thoughts of retaliation, but I hear brake fluid does wonders to a paint job. Thanks for your suggestions!

To Joey & Michelle on the "Kitchen" post: We got a $65 faucet. The meatballs were YUMMY! Have you ever tried them? We're always up for Red, Hot & Blue... any time you want to come up to Laurel, let us know! They serve hush puppies there too! And Linda claims their potato salad is the best in this area.

I realized today I'm addicted to reading blogs.... not just knitting blogs. Friends' blogs and what they read too. I was reading the blog of someone I know (just discovered this weekend she had a blog) and I couldn't stop reading. Some of the entries made me laugh out loud, they were so hilarious. I started my blog to keep friends and family who live in far away places on pace with what's happening in my little corner of the world. Some of my entries are probably really boring, but I enjoy this new fangled method for journaling.

For those of you who don't yet have a blog, start one today! Go to the top of the page and do it now! It's so easy! Make sure to send me your link when you're done...

Weekend at Nicky's

It was a busy weekend that started with dinner at my parents'. Yummy Thai food -- my weekly fix. Next weekend, my folks are heading to NC with some friends to go golfing. One of their golfing buddies is treating my dad for his birthday, which is on the 13th. I hope the weather is nice for their trip!

After Friday night dinner, John and I were going to meet up with our pals at the Corner Pub, but there wasn't much parking. I found a prime spot and went past it to make a u-turn (avoiding 3-point turns at all costs!). Well, next time I'll know better! Hmmm... it's Sunday and I'm still peeved about this... anyway, as I was making my mid-street u-turn, some blonde bi-otch in a white SUV turned the corner off the boulevard and so I had to stop for her and the bi-otch took my spot!!!! I should have pulled the old "head in" parking move, as she was backing into MY spot. You ever wish you kept old eggs in the car for these types of circumstances?

I went down the side street where we normally have to park, but there were few places close by. It was COLD that night and I didn't want to walk a mile. The one spot I saw was too small for Jackass. I saw another spot, and started driving towards it but had to wait for this dude to back out of his corner parking spot. He looked like he was leaving... could ya guess WTF he did? YES! He took the spot I was eyeing.

So, we (I) decided to go home. I think I scared Johnny a little... it was a case of road rage as I merged onto the Beltway and the person in front of me wasn't accelerating fast enough. HELLO! It's the Beltway! Everyone else is already driving 70! You can't merge on going 35 and not expect to be cursed at!

I woke up Saturday morning and declared I was still mad. Part PMS too, I guess. We headed out to the MD Home & Garden / Craft show in Timonium. My friend, Kara, has a side job with Anderson windows and was working the show this weekend. I wanted to see if they had tile and flooring displays so I could get some ideas for our renovation. We ended up buying some lemon pound cake, a jar of apple butter, candied almonds and 2 cans of cream of crab soup mix. Nothing to do with "home & garden"....

Saturday night, after looking around The Great Indoors for more tile and flooring, we met up with our friends at Nick's Chophouse. For Christmas 2005, we gave our best buds gift certificates to this restaurant. It started a few years ago when Val gave us all gc's to Maggiano's and she's been doing this for us since. John and I ate at Nick's in October when we had family friends in from Thailand and were treated to a fabulous dinner by my Auntie Wirajit.

Anyway, we wanted to introduce our friends to this place. It was so nice to be able to get everyone together for a fabulous meal and good times. It's been quite a while since all of us have gotten together like this. We used to hang out more -- whether at someone's house watching a sporting event or at a bar -- but these days I think everyone is busy with other things. The cycle of changing relationships and coupledom, I suppose. Look at John's yummy NY Strip:



I had the prime rib... I have enough left over for 2 more meals! I meant to ask Nate how his lobster tail was. It looked luscious! I also had some of William's calamari appetizer. They make it so tender and tasty. Good times!

For the past few weeks, I've been working on a project that is my first attempt at felting. Basically, if you knit something made of wool, throw it in a washer with hot water and let it agitate with jeans and towels, it turns into felt. So, I made this:



It's the B4 Bag from the Bloomin' Knitiot. Very easy pattern and fun to make. I expected it to shrink a lot more than it did. I probably should have let it run a 3rd cycle of hot water and agitation. It will probably take 3 days or so to dry, as it's stuffed with plastic bags and jars of salsa, queso dip and canned soup to shape it. My next one will be made with smaller needles and single strand of yarn instead of the double. This will produce a thinner fabric, and I'm hoping a cuter, smaller bag. The pic doesn't show all the detail very clearly, but it's got bobbles, beads and bumps. I need to sew some buttons on it too (hence the B4 name of the bag). I'm still on the lookout for some cool metal ones. Maybe hammered metal.

A fun but busy weekend comes to a close.

Kitchen Renovation Part One

The kitchen renovations are underway with the purchase of a new faucet and sink. The new sink from Kohler is an inch deeper than our current one and is curvy, adding a tiny bit more room and style.

We also purchased a new faucet, but I think the countertop material we'd like to install deserves a fancier faucet than the one I selected. I like my selection, but it's very basic. It's just difficult to visualize how everything will look with the countertop material we like...

We changed our minds from SileStone to Zodiaq. The color choices are Eclipse Blue or Borealis Blue -- one is $58 per sq ft and the other is $79. I don't remember which one is the lesser, but that's the one we want.

Stay tuned for more details... I also have more knitting news (William's favorite update!) to come as well...

UPDATE: A trip to Ikea for dinner (Swedish Meatballs. YUM!) allowed us to see our countertop choices and Eclipse Blue is the winner!

Fun Filler

This one has a little interactive box at the bottom so you can enter your own name or whatever and then click GO to get your own. I'm gonna try BHL next to see what happens!

Ten Top Trivia Tips about Jallie Beans!

1. Jallie Beans is born white; her pink feathers are caused by pigments in her typical diet of shrimp.
2. On stone temples in southern India, there are more than 30 million carved images of Jallie Beans.
3. You burn more calories sleeping than you do watching Jallie Beans.
4. 99 percent of the pumpkins sold in the US end up as Jallie Beans.
5. In Ancient Egypt, people wore glittery eyeshadow made from the crushed shells of Jallie Beans!
6. While performing her duties as queen, Cleopatra sometimes dressed up as Jallie Beans!
7. Jallie Beans is only six percent water.
8. The international dialing code for Jallie Beans is 672!
9. Humans share about fifty percent of their DNA with Jallie Beans.
10. A female ferret will die if it goes into heat and cannot find Jallie Beans.

I am interested in - do tell me aboutherhimitthem