Yummy.

Man, getting George that grill as a birthday present was the best gift I’ve ever gotten myself him. Last night he grilled some cheapo steaks and portobello mushrooms and corn on the cob (though, briefly, we made popcorn as well) and red peppers. Everything was so yummy! Now George can cook for me, without the threat of tuna-fish chili or another of his odd concoctions involving vat-grown fungi.

The weather has just been outstandingly beautiful here. Not hot, breezy, etc. I was actually chilly last night!

T-minus 42 days and counting until I see my Ellie! Who will be ONE on Sunday!!!

Sick

Ugh. Was home sick yesterday. Still not feeling 100% today, but better. And is anything worse than being home sick and having the internet down? I don’t think so. I couldn’t even play online! Sheesh. And the DVR is messing up, so it was hard to watch tv. Pout. Ah well.

The weekend was jam-packed with fun. Could barely cram more fun into weekend. Har. Friday night…um I can’t remember. Oh yeah, our halfiversary! Went to the Crescent City Brewhouse. Had yummy pasta. Went to pub. Saturday we cleaned and I baked cake and made ice cream. Went to friend Terry and Rob’s going away party that afternoon, and then ended up at (guess).

Sunday I gave George his birthday present – a grill. He was excited. I’m excited for him to start cooking me dinner on it! Hee hee. My mom came in, we had lunch. Bought Ellie a birthday present. (One of many.) Went to my house so Mom could see the new countertops (she was suitably impressed.) Wasn’t feeling well at this point. Poor George, not a very fun birthday, I’m sure. He went to (guess) while I stayed home.

Blah blah blah. I’m a big groggy because of the Tylenol PM I took last night. Zzzzzz.

Half-iversary

Happy halfiversary to George and meeee! Woo! Can you believe? Six months!

I do have some cake issues this weekend, though. Because today is our halfiversary, but tomorrow is a going away party for some friends and Sunday is George’s birthday AND Mother’s Day.

I’m making a cake for the party tomorrow (it will serve as George’s birthday cake, we’re actually going to eat it at the pub after the party, because George shares a birthday with one of our friends who is going away.) and then on Sunday we’re going to eat the top layer of our wedding cake. Not today, but Sunday. So my mom can have some. She’s coming in to town! A rare occasion, indeed.

So anyway, lots of cake. Not sure what the dilemma was, now. Ha ha!

(Eating wedding cake now so it doesn’t get stuck in the freezer if we have to evacuate. Yes, we could take the cake with us, but it’s too risky. Plus I just want the dang cake!)

05/04/06

Gosh, I hate to post if it means my pretty countertops are going to be pushed down the page. But alas, it must happen sooner or later. Speaking of my lovely countertops, they should be finished tonight. We’re putting up the strip of wood on the edge, doing some touchups, and voila! All done!

Sadly, there is not much else exciting to report. At least, nothing I can post here. But the roller coaster of fun that will be my life for the rest of the year is about to begin, so I won’t complain about things being quiet for now.

The travel part will be fun, but the fact that two friends are moving away puts a bit of a damper on things. Sucks hardcore is more like it. But what can you do? Life goes on. Things change. Blah blah blah.

So, fun travel. I got some Pittsburgh and DC at the end of this month. And then I have some Ellie time in L.A. at the end of June. And then a few weeks later, it’s Delaware. (I’m pretty sure I’ve never been to Delaware, but I hear it’s very popular for bachelorette parties. Not really, I never heard that, but that’s what we’re doing. Bachelorette party in Delaware! It’s pretty funny when you say it like that, isn’t it? But really it’s on the beach in Delaware, so it’s all good. Except for the bathing-suit part.)

After Delaware, I’ll have a little down time (but maybe we can sneak in a visit to Houston?) and there’s a mini-break with some of my favorite girls to Natchitoches, then the marathon in Baltmore in mid-October, then the biggie – Mexico! And after that (yes, there’s MORE), I’m supposed to be going to Monterrey, California (which, secretly, is the trip I’m most looking forward to. Because there are no bathing suits involved.)

And then in 2007, I have Vegas for Kristina’s bachelorette (it’s no Delaware, but it’ll do) and then South Carolina for her wedding and then we want to go to London next year again, so cross fingers that it works out. (Oh yeah, and Monterrey again. Woo!)

So lots of travel to look forward to. And now I just remembered that I hate flying. Hmm.

Who knew?

Well, who knew? This year I have been discovering previously hidden talents that I possess. First it was pizza making, which expanded to include breadmaking. Now it is tiling. Granted, this is a genius talent that I will probably not be exploring further, as it is a messy talent that doesn’t get you hot, delectable bread at the end, but nevertheless it’s a nice talent to have.

So here is a before picture of our kitchen:

And here is an almost-after:

We have, since I took that after photo, grouted the backsplash and finished everything except for the finishing edge. But still. Vast improvement. And I have grout under my fingernails. Still.

Last night we went to George’s school fair and I managed to not win at the goldfish game, the ring-around-the-two-liter-of-Diet-Coke game, and the plant game. Hmmph. These are talents I do not possess. See, I’m not ashamed to admit that I’m not good at everything. It’s okay.

Got my ticket to visit Ellie. Just two months (ugh) til I get to see her again! Yay!

Date-iversary #4

Boy, if you read my blog entry from four years ago today, you’d just have thought that day was an ordinary day. No mention of the date I had that night, which believe me, was very out of the ordinary. Well, I didn’t write anything about it because I didn’t know if George was reading my blog. So I was very cool about it all.

Tonight we’re going to go to the Crescent City Brewhouse for dinner, just like we did four years ago. Mmmm.

Am getting excited about tiling the countertops this weekend. I hope it doesn’t end up looking like crap. Want to go buy the tiles during my lunch break today, but I have to wait until I can bring some of the guys I work with to do the heavy lifting, and today’s not a good day. Dang. Not that I need to get them today, I just want to.

Prom!

Whew! I need a weekend from this weekend. V busy.

Friday night, we went to dinner at Amy and Van’s house. Amy and Van are 2/3 of the band that played at our wedding. Amy likes frogs. A lot. Dinner was yummy.

On Saturday, I voted and then went across the river to help out at my friend Angela’s cafe’s booth at French Quarter fest. It went well, but it was very exhausting. Only four hours of work, so I feel like a bit of a wuss. But seriously, I must’ve dished out a million Barbecue Shrimp Po-boys. Mmmm. Lots of butter.

After that, it was time to start getting ready for prom! Wooo! Prom was fun. That’s all I can say about that…really, pictures tell the story better:




Sunday involved a bit of recovery from prom, plus a gym visit, some bread baking (sourdough, mmmm) and then a barbecue at a friend’s house. Lots of meat. Reminded me of the time we went to the Brazilian barbecue restaurant when I went to NYC with Kristina and Anne and Marianne. (I won’t attempt to spell the name of the restaurant here.) Anyway. Not making much sense.

Four years ago today, I was nervous. I had a date the next night. I hadn’t been on a proper date in a very long time. Who was this “George” I’d met a few nights before?

4/19/06

Seriously, I’m a pizza genius. I think I’ll have to open Pam’s Pizzeria to share my talent with the world. It’s just not fair otherwise.

Then again, you know how they say not to eat pizza right before you go to bed, or else you’ll have nightmares? I’m thinking George must’ve eaten his dinner late because at about 4 am, he springs up in bed, yelling about the bugs. Hee hee.

Actually, let’s not blame the pizza. Let’s blame the gift I gave him for Easter. Some violent alien-filled videogame. Tee hee. (I can laugh about it now.)

Is it Wednesday already? That’s good. Halfway through the week! Tonight is Top Chef! This weekend is prom! And I’m volunteering at French Quarter fest. (Why do I do this? I hate the music at FQF but this is the second year I’ve volunteered. Ah, it must be my kind and generous heart.)

Okay, back to being bored.

CCC 10k

Crescent City Classic (10K) was on Saturday. I kicked it’s arse! Woooo!

So I’ve done this race twice before, but it’s always been so hot that I’ve had to walk more than run. Plus, I’ve never done it alone and been able to go at my own pace. So my time has always been around 1:25. Today, I was racing alone, so I was able to go at a pace that was comfortable for me. My goal was just to finish in under 1:25. My secret, don’t tell anyone goal was 1:15, which means 12 minute miles the whole time. I’ve barely been doing 12 minute miles on the treadmill, I thought there was no way I’d be able to do 12 minute miles outside, in the heat.

Guess what my time was? Guess! Guess!

(Just kidding)

1:14:27! Yay!!! I actually maintained 12 minutes miles the whole way! (I kept up a 4:1 run:walk the whole time, so this is an average.)

Here are my splits:
Mile 1: 12:31 – this mile is spent largely running around walkers. I was actually concerned that I did it so fast! I really didn’t expect it to be my slowest mile
Mile 2: 12:01
Mile 3: 12:11
Mile 4: 11:50 (!)
Mile 5: 12:00
Mile 6: 11:39 (!!)
Mile .2: 2:11
Total: 1:14:27! Yay!

Woah. This means I ran negative splits, too! That’s amazing! (When you run the second half faster than the first.) I don’t think I’ve ever done this!

Wooooo!

Easter dinner was a lot of fun. So much good food. Can’t wait for lunch today…leftovers! Yum!

April 12, 2006

So last night I made more bread with my fancy new cookbook. Here’s what I have to say about fancy new cookbooks. (How do you spell sticking your tongue out and spraying the fancy new cookbook with my spittle?)

It wasn’t bad bread, but it took me three days to make (well, technically two but I waited a day in the middle) and I’m pretty sure I followed the directions closely, but there was flour in the middle, where I folded the bread. It said to fold it. Hmmph. No more folding. Knead. Not fold. It was ciabatta and v tasty, don’t get me wrong. But it wasn’t three-days-in-the-making good.

On another note, I am quite proud of some invitations I designed for Kristina’s engagement party. I can’t post them here, because she hasn’t seen them yet. But they’re freaking awesome. Don’t you want to hire me to design stuff for you? Come ON people, I put down a deposit for Anne’s wedding, now I’m gonna have to pay the rest!

On another note, my sister is evil. She called me last night to say Ellie didn’t say hi. She and Rob and my mom are in LA visiting my sweetest pumpkinhead baby niece and I want to be there! Argh! But it’s okay…must calm down…I will go in late June and by that time, Ellie will have forgotten ALL about evil Aunt Jenny and all thoughts will be pushed aside in favor of lovely Aunt Pam. Yay Aunt Pam! She is the best!