The couch that almost was

Who would think that buying a couch would be such an onerous task. It would seem really simple; shop around, sit on some sofas, pick one, purchase, and plop in front of new armoire. But NOOOOOOOOOO it is much more difficult than that. In the past four months I have learned there are a lot of ugly couches for sale and I am tired of looking at them. Before the reality of sofa shopping sunk in, I dreamt longingly for the day when I could afford a plush, comfy, new sofa. I often imagined myself lounging, in a luxurious cushy cushion with the lights low, a bowl of pop-corn and Mike and I bathed in the blue light of some fun movie. Now that the day has come that I have saved and set aside some furniture money I am finding nothing I like. Before xmas I actually bought a coch at Lacks. I went in on a Saturday bright and early bought it and then ruminated all day that I had made the wrong choice. Right before closing I slipped in a cancelled my order. Poor sales guy. But I just couldn't commit to a couch I wasn't sure was going to be that perfect, luxurious, movie watching sofa. So the hunt is back on- 2006 the year of the sofa! Wish me luck!

Icy conditions in Austin

Yep, you read that right it is actually below freezing here in Texas. Brrr I am so cold and for some odd reason the very tip of my nose is positively frigid. Does anybody else chronically have a really cold nose tip? The rest of me can be warm as a bun but the tip of my nose seems to always be freezing in the winter, very strange. One more thing I have in common with dogs I guess;). Anyway, I am sure all you South DAkotans who may be reading this are deeply sympathetic with all my whining since it isn't very cold up there right now:)!! What the heck is going on up there? Yahoo weather tells me it was below -10 yesterday, and below 7 today. If you guys don't do something about getting that temperature up a little higher, I am not coming for Christmas:).
WEll it is getting late and I do still have to get up for work even if it is an hour later because of the winter road conditions. Yeah seriously we are going to have a few clouds in the sky and you don't want to risk the roads when it potentially could be chilly tomorrow:).

"My Bad" makes the big time

Since this blog has kind of evolved into an eclectic collection of things that interest me ( cooking, crochet, cavorting in wigs and reading) I thought I would include language use, another of my interests, to the topics of discussion. Anyway, I just read on another blog that the term "My Bad" (as in whoops, it is my fault but so you won't be too mad at me I will use this silly, flippant slang. The author of the blog explained that phrase was originally heard in urban, pickup basketball games about 20 years ago but because the term was now used in an ivy league professor's lecture it has now finally hit the big time of American usage. Kind of funny how even phrases can have humble beginnings and work their way to prestige. Ugh I must be tired that was really silly. Anyway, the blog is at the link below and is kind of interesting and yeah supremely nerdy;).


http://itre.cis.upenn.edu/~myl/languagelog/archives/002693.html#more

HP6

You know you are a pathetic nerd when you are counting the hours at work until you can get home and continue reading the new Harry Potter book. That is what I was doing all day today; 6 more hourst till Potter, 4 more hourse to Potter, 2 1/2 more hours till Potter..... The times I wasn't fantasizing about running off and curling up with the tome, I was piping up over my cube wall asking people if they had read the book, seen the new movie, thought Harry should date Ginny and yes just being annoying to all my hard working coworkers. Yes, I know this enthusiasm is a little late. I am aware the book came out in July but until now I just wasn't really that excited about this new edition of the young wizards adventures. First, I was waiting for a sibling of mine to finish it and send it to me so I quelled my excitement and patiently waited for her to finish. Well that took a while and Mike couldn't wait and bought it as soon as he saw it used somewhere and read it in a weekend. He was obviously very excited about it but his excitement just wasn't contagious enough- it is so big and there are so many chores to do and the last one was SO boring I kept telling myself. But as the leisurely holiday weekend approached I decided I would tear myself from the weed pulling and grouting to devote a few hours to this onerous and surely somniferous task of reading the last book. Oh I also forgot to mention that about 2 months ago sadly some wiseguy in my office gave away a big plot point so I felt even less disinclined to read the book. But oh my I am so sorry I waited, this one is so fun- just like chewy, sweet taffy for my gray matter. I love it! So with that being said I am going to wrap up this silly blog post and get back to what I really want to do- find out what Slughorn's Christmas party is like. Happy Reading!!

Wig Night

Well, this Saturday was much better than last. Mike and I went out for wig night and karoake with a friend of ours and group of her friends from graduate school.At first I was pretty resistant to spending money on something as frivolous as a wig but we ran into the the wig night friend while we were shopping and her enthusiasm was pretty contagious. I cheaped out and bought a really cheap, purple, mylar wig (aluminum ribbons) and Mike got a bargain afro- that is what it really said on the tag- "dark brown, bargain afro". He looked so cute and dangerous in the wig especially with his stubble. Everyone looked so cute in their colorful wigs that I really regretted buying such a cheap, ugly wig. Then one of my friends pulled out an adorable, pink bob wig that she brought in case someone didn't have a wig. So voila I looked like a crazy muppet all night but it was very fun. After we had drinks we all went to Austin karaoke for a karoake extravaganza. When I was told we were going to sing karoake, I assumed we would go to some bar and sing with everyone was else in the bar. However, this karoake was a little different. Instead of a bar we went to a place called Austin Karaoke which looked a lot like a hotel with a series of long hallways and about 12 rooms in the whole place. Each room had a wall of televisions hooked up to a karaoke machine. There was no alcohol but you could bring in as much as you like and you could bring food in as well. Needless to say it was so much fun because you didn't feel silly about making a fool out of yourself and you could sing along and dance as much you wanted. The highlight of the night was when all of us sang along to Bohemian Rhapsody at top volume. I highly recommend going to a private karoake club, it is so fun to sing like crazy all night . I imagine this is how they do karoake in Asia where it is a huge past time. I can't wait till the next time we go out for karaoke.

PS if anyone wants to see Mike in an afro wig or a couple very scary pictures of me in a pink wig, email me. I don't want to post the pictures here cause they are... well kind of embarassing.

Beware the Fish

Last night, Mike and I had dinner with some friends at a local bar and grill. Our friends, Shannon and Lacy, have a 2 1/2 year old so they chose this place because of it's kid friendly reputation. When she told us the address and name, I thought she must have been misinformed the word Tavern was in the name but sure enough there was a play scape in the back and all the toy trucks and buckets a little boy could play with. We had a great time catching up with our friends, watching their little boy frolick in the play area and just generally enjoying the brisk yet comfortable November evening. Where things go very, very wrong is when I order the fried fish sandwich. We didn't have a lot of menus on the table, so I took a cursory glance at the menu, made a quick decision between the fish sandwich and a chicken salad and passed the menu on to my friend. Now I know, when in doubt, go with the chicken salad. The trouble started in the car when I began to regret having two tap beers. I normaly have a sensitive stomach anyway, so I avoid dairy, red meat, fried foods and beer but occasionally I feel a little too self-confident in my digestion and order whatever I want. Well, thankfully what went on last night does not happen everytime I have dairy or fried food or I would be lying in a fetal position whimpering for my Mamma for the rest of my life. Of course, I will spare you the gorey details because I would like you guys to return to my blog but I just have to say that I commiserate with anyone who has had salmonella or e.coli, that was absolutely miserable. I have had nightmare hangovers and stomach flus that were like a fun filled day at an amusement park compared to this! However, I can't say for certain I had food poisoning or even if it was the fish but stomach flus don't usually hit that suddenly. I feel a little better now but I can tell that whatever microbe found its way to my gut last night is just starting to clean up after the wild party. The worst thing about feeling that miserable is you can't really do much but think about how miserable you are...I couldn't read, watch tv, or crochet. All I could do was roll around the bed and moan. So pathetic. Poor Mike. Poor you guys, for reading this;). Well I promise my next entry will have a lot less stomach distress! Have a great Thanksgiving...ugh food:(. Miss and love you all.

Crochet Girls

As a girl I recently met told me, "Austinites love Craig's list". Apparently some cities ignore the free want ads site but in Austin we use it to furnish our homes, get jobs, find dates and make friends from the once hippie list. and I am no different. I routinely peruse the site for furniture but have little luck in actually getting something. Apparently, my Craig's list bargaining skills need some improvement and I routinely lose out on the coveted armoire, lawnmower, or easy chair. But finally I have had a success on Craig's list.

A few days ago I decided to take a look at the groups section which I rarely do and found an ad orgainizing a crochet or knitting party written by an obviously upbeat, clever young woman who according to the hat she was wearing in the ad looked like she was a little more adept at crochet than me. Well, just finishing something makes her more adept than me. For the last two years I have attempted to make scarves and doilies on my own but it was hard to be confident about by progress without any experienced guidance. Mom taught me the basics when I would visit but I forgot the trickier things and it is hard to describe a crochet stitch over the phone. After signing up for two canceled crochet classes at the UT community education classes, I had given up on ever really furthering my crochet skills but when I saw Victoria's ad I was very excited that there were other people who wanted to crochet advise. The meeting was a blast we chatted and Victoria gave great instruction. I am looking forward to many more meetings and actually finishing a project. I will keep you all posted!!

Happy Halloween!!

Well, this is officially my first Halloween as a homeowner, in a family neighborhood. So, I bought my overpriced generic candy yesterday. Rushed home tonight before dark, skipping my workout to greet the hoardes of costumed children that would inevitably be tromping on my doorstep! I also was very excited to blog about the trick or treaters and catalog all the adorable costumes to come my way. So here is the big list forty-five minutes into official trick o treating time...two surly teenagers draped in oversized sports jerseys. No, cute little kitty cats, ballerinas, or adorable plump babies dressed as pumpkins. Nope, I get two gawky adolescents who were completely unimpressed with the assortment of hard candy I had to offer. OH hold on I just got a bloody Jason at my door. He was a little younger and more appreciative of my candy. Just watching the cat freak out each time the door bell rings may be worth the price of the candy!! OK maybe the whining was premature. I just had a floatella of costumed youngsters who were very nice. One witch, one geisha (she was dressed in a kimono so I am assuming she was a geisha), 2 mideval wenches, a guy from scream (what do you call him) and a ninja. When I told the witch and geisha they sure were cute the witch responded laconically "yes."
Ok now I am getting more than I can count. so far 2 kids have considered the tradition of dressing up completely optional and have decided to go as school age chilren with plastic sacks.
A pimp, a pirate and a skunk (sweet little baby skunk- cutest costume so far) have come to my door now.

Poor Kim Jong Il ( that is the current name of our cat) she is really freaked out by the activity.
For the past 10 minutes there has been a lull and she has now reemerged from the bedroom closet and is looking very askance at the front door. Maybe it is not the door bell or the shrill voices of children but my startled skampering to the door that is really scaring her. I am not exactly gracefull when I leap over the couch and lunge toward the door.
One nondespcrit witch and a very charming Incredible boy (Dash) just showed up. To thank me he breathed menacingly into his Darth Vader candy resecptacle. Cute.
My neighbors just came by with Spider Man, Minnie Mouse and the cutest little chicken!!! This is lots of fun!!

The candy bag is getting pretty thin and I am getting hungry. I think it is time to wind up the Halloween evening and snuggle in front of the Medium marathon.
Happy Halloween everybody.

back to blogging

Right now Mike and I are sitting in our living room watching the sopranos on dvd and staring at our laptops on appropriately enough, our laps. Thanks to all of Mike's hard work we got our wireless network up and running this weekend and are now reaping the convenience. It is so nice to have the internet whenever we want. I have been whining and whining to Mike ever since we moved into the house and now finally we have it. Hopefully, now I will write on this little blog a little more now that I have the access.
This weekend has been kind of low key. I have been slowly recovering from a monstrous cold that had me out of commission most of the week. Monday morning I woke up with a sore throat and I slowly became more and more of a bio hazard as the week progressed. It is amazing how one common cold can make you so miserable.

Home Sweet Barren Home

We have been in the house for three weeks now but I am just starting to feel remotely settled. Almost all the boxes are emptied and things are put away. However, I was reminded of what happens when you move from an 800 sq ft apt to a 1500 sq ft house yesterday when a plumber came to the house (charged me 65$ to tighten a pipe- that is whole story I will go into later) and said "you must still have a lot of unpacking to do". Yeah, it is pretty empty but it is actually so good to have a roomy, open house and I am going to enjoy these open, uncluttered times because I am sure like everyother good, American gal I will buy plenty of stuff to fill up my little house.

Yummy recipe

Well not a lot going on this week. Mike's brother, Andy was in town on business and we took him to two of our favorite Austin places, Salt Lick bbq and Chuys. So, yes we stuffed him with really fattening food and sent him back to California but I think he enjoyed it:). Now we are gearing up for the big move; cleaning out closets, selling books we don't want etc. - Mike made over 40 dollars lucky dog!

So, I was thinking something fun to do with this blog would be to exchange recipes. In the past, I was really cooking-adverse but in last few years I have become obsessed with it and I am always looking for new recipes. So, if any of you have a recipe you would like to share please feel free to post it in the add comments section.

I found one today on line that I am going to make tonight. It sounds delicious. I will post it here and let you all know later if it really is as yummy as it sounds.
Zai jian, Love ya
Angie

Braised Salmon with Leeks and Dill

Preparation time: 15 minutes
Cooking time: 20 minutes

1 teaspoon olive oil
2 1/2 cups chopped leek
4 garlic cloves, minced
1 1/2 cups coarsely chopped tomato
1/4 teaspoon salt
1/8 teaspoon pepper
1/2 cup dry white wine
4 (6-ounce) skinned salmon fillets (about 1 inch thick)
1/2 teaspoon dried or 1 1/2 teaspoons chopped fresh dill


Heat oil in a large nonstick skillet over medium-high heat. Add leek; sauté 3 minutes. Add garlic; sauté 2 minutes. Add tomato, salt, and pepper; sauté 2 minutes. Add wine and salmon; sprinkle with dill, and bring to a boil. Cover, reduce heat, and simmer 8 minutes or until fish flakes easily when tested with a fork. Serve with roasted potatoes.

Born to Run - Wimp OUt

Well I am very disappointed to report that Crishauna and I are not going forward with the Born to Run program. She has community service the day of the race so she doesn't want to keep training. I was so excited about doing it but I couldn't convince her to just keep training even though we won't run the race. Hopefully, I can convince her to go for more walks with me. At first I thought she was just looking for an excuse to get out of the exercise, the community service seems a little convenient, doesn't it? However, her Mom said they had been walking and running together all week to get ready for it and she was very disappointed that she would not be able to do it. Well I tried. Maybe I can convince her to do the Breast Cancer run in November.

New House

So this is it, my first house. Last Thursday we saw it and fell in love with it right away. What is really disconcerting to me about house buying in the Austin market is how quickly you have to make decisions. When we went to look at the house another realtor was already there waiting for his client to show up and this was the first day it was on the market. After we looked at this house we went to couple of other dumpy looking places, told Cynthia we would call her and over Vietnamese food I fretted over whether or not I should buy the place. If it were up to me I would have looked at the house 2 or 3 more times but you just don't have that luxury here with the good ones. The yucky ones stay on the market for weeks but I know that right now I am not up for a huge project house. I want to come home and relax not feel like I have a thousand projects hanging over my head. There are other things I would rather have hanging over my head. So, I decided and I think rightly so, that I was not going to find another so well cared for house for this price. And the two major selling points were the tile floors throughout and the sun room and I hadn't seen anything with those amenities. It also has a sprinkler system, a two car garage and vaulted ceilings. Anyway I keep telling myself that it won't look as cute when we get our mismatched spare furniture but over time we will cute-it-up with nice furniture and paint.

Born to Run Day 1

As many of you might know, I am a volunteer with the Big Brothers Big Sisters (BBBS) organization and I have been "matched" with a little sister for 2 years. The experience has had its share of ups and downs but overall I have really enjoyed getting to know this little girl and her family. Unfortunately, Crishauna has had a pretty rough year in school and with her family. In an attempt to help her gain a little confidence I have convinced her to join a running program that BBBS in partnership with the local running supply store, RunTex, is initiating. For the next six weeks we will meet every Saturday morning at 8:30 with a trainer from the RunTex to prepare for a 5K on September. The really great thing about the program is the promotion of physical activity but the bribe to get the kids out there is a FREE pair of running shoes. During this six week training session she will be given a free pair of brand new running shoes that she can take home after the race, provided she attends all the training sessions! Great deal, huh! I thought so but it took a lot of coaxing and finally another bribe to get her to agree to do it!

However, I do have to admit that I do have my own selfish reasons for convincing her to join the program. Nothing is truly altrusitic is it. I really want the opportunity to get some free training from those running instructors and the obligation to run twice a week. Running is not my favorite exercise but the results are fantastic and if I ever find myself chased by bad guys I won't be limping along with a horrible stitch in my side. Yes, that has been a worry of mine! Anyway, today's training session wasn't exactly a huge hit with Crishauna. She complained the whole time we stretched and walked the first lap. But she is a competitive girl and by the second lap she was showing a little more energy and interest. During the walk back to the store from the park she was animated and chatting away. It was Larry, the instructor, who noted this visible change in energy and called her on it! Now I wouldn't say she was enthusiastic about the program when we left but she at least agreed to continue going and we are going to go walking tomorrow as part of our training. I plan to write after each training session and kind of document how this all turns out. I will be so proud of us if we finish the training and run in the race!!

Florida Pictures

Due to some ridiculous technical difficulties that I will not bore all of you with, I have not been able to download my Florida pictures from my camera until now. Finally, the moment you have all been waiting for my silly vacation photos. Actually, I didn't really take that many pictures because most of the time we were in the ocean. The best photo opportunity was when we were at the historical city of St Augustine and in the St Augustine fort. St. Augustine is the oldest settlement in North America and if I remember correctly was settled by the Spanish and fought over by the French and the English a lot! Anyway, it is a charming little tourist trap that I insisted my poor hosts take me to. They were good sports in indulging my inner-tourist.

Birthday Weekend

This weekend is officialy dedicated to eating a lot of fancy food, drinking a lot, hanging out with friends, and doing NO cleaning! OK it isn't really that different from most weekends but Friday was my birthday and Sunday is Mike's so we have a good excuse for all that sloth and debauchery. Well I consider eating chocolate cake three times a day debauchery and that is what I am doing:)! Yesterday, was a great day more for what I got done than for what I didn't do. I got up early, worked out, got things done at work, had a nice lunch with a friend and found a GREAT sale at JC Penney. Yes, I am so pathetic, the sale made my day. After my shopping spree we went to a nice dinner with friends and drank a ton of champagne. Champagne is so yummy and I think I am going to have champagne every birthday. It is a good birthday drink. One of my friends bought me a bouquet of purple gladiolas. They are a long stem, kind of heavy flower and holding them I felt like I won a beauty pageant or Nascar race!
Tonight, we are having drinks with friends and I am looking forward to just a relaxing evening of chatting and enjoy this unusually, comfortable weather. Have a wonderful weekend everyone and I will try to write more soon.

Family in Texas

Quick Post

Hi everyone,
This is just a quick post to put up some photos and attempt to keep the momentum of my blogging going. Knowing that I just returned from a quick trip to visit friends in Florida for the fourth, you would think I would have pictures of Florida to post. Well so did I but unfortunately my digital camera batteries refuse to emit enough power to get the pictures from the camera to the computer. So they're trapped on the camera and destined to disappear as soon as I remove the batteries. Fortunately, I do have pictures from my family's visit to Austin in early May to share with all of you.
By the way, the trip to Florida was very nice. Mike and I spent every day cavorting on the beach and the evenings bbqing and hanging out with our friends. For the fourth of July, my friend's Mom prepared us an amazing Lebanese feast which was SUCH a treat. It isn't very often I get homemade grape-leaves and apparently it isn't very often her Mom makes them. So I felt very lucky and I certainly tried to eat enough to show my appreciation. Afterwards, a large crane was brought in to lift me away from the table and take me to the beach where we watched the fireworks display from a beautiful high-rise condo. The reflection of the fireworks on the Ocean was breathtaking and I am sure has spoiled me for all future fourth of July's.
Well, I hope you all had a great fourth and I can't wait to hear from all of you soon.
Angie

On the blog-wagon

Well I have done it, I have succumbed to another fad. First a two month yoga membership,an addiction to fancy coffee and now a blog! Well who am I to judge right? I have found myself obsessed with a couple of my friends blog and I thought what a great way to keep in touch with everyone in one place. So, all of you, my friends and family spread around the country, please come here and see what is going on in my world and take a peak at the pictures I plan to post.