Racer X

Chasing Sarah with the camera...

High Society Snobs

You know what happens when socialites get their hands on champagne, riiiight?


Those pinkies flip up in the air as they grab their drinks...


...they take a sip of the magical elixir...


...they get all snooty...


...and then they start trying to burn all their money and eat snooty food like thawed out cocktail shrimp!


Crazy freaks!

Dancing fiends

While in NY for Thanksgiving, we learned Emma and Sarah are child prodigies, and they definitely have a musical future ahead of them...


Here's Emma show Emily and Jen (next door to my parents) how to play the piano.


Now that Emily and Jen know how to play the piano, Emma and Sarah decided to put on a performance like you've never seen...



That wasn't the only dancing going on! Jen and Emily talked us into playing some DDR (Dance Dance Revolution for those of you not cool enough to know!). I even talked dad into giving it a try. Somehow there were no pics of me doing it (I guess I was taking most of the pics!) - dad, Brett and I pretty much stayed on beginner, and we still sucked. We all seemed to keep our hands in our pockets, and then wondered why we were repeatedly losing our balance and almost falling over. Our scores? Typically a D or F!


Emily showed us how it's really done - taking on expert mode and flying all over the DDR game pad. She was amazing!

Misc cat pics

Sorry Peter - but I've got a ton of cat pictures just begging to be posted, and zero pics of food!

Here's what it looked like just before we left for Thanksgiving in NY! That was PLENTY of food (I actually measured out their usual amount, times the number of days we'd be gone, and then added a little extra - just in case). Wow, they sure eat a lot of food! Actually, I don't know if it's because they didn't hear the sprinkling of fresh food twice a day enticing them to eat, or if they were rationing themselves in case we didn't come back, but there was still enough food to last them a few days when we got back. (Just so you don't think we deprive our beasts, fresh bowls of water were around the corner, PLUS they have their filtered water fountain recycling water in the laundry room)


Nap time!



And Moxie loved the lower shelf of the book case so much that I set her up with her own little spot. She loves it!

While working from home...

Took these pictures while working from home the other day. You can see what source of heat we'll be using if we find we can't afford our gas bill (now that we have gas for the first time). Granted, I think the puss-cats are thinking of US as a source of heat...does this work both ways?

The enemy has returned

Check out who was roaming around in the backyards the other day! I got a good video of him too - maybe that'll get posted later. Six points - Andy, you interested in driving down to get a snack? Maybe a little deer jerky? (Actually, I don't know for certain that THIS guy was the one who ate one of my strawberry plants...)


And while this picture was taken around the same time, no, they're not playing guard cats and scaring off the deer. They were more focused on the birds at the feeders! (They sure look sinister though, don't they?!)

Hallelujah

LOL Peter sent this - it's great!



So, is everyone listening to their favorite Christmas music now? Sure, it's not even December yet, but Thanksgiving is just a tasty memory at this point...

Tis the Season

If this doesn't start getting you in the holiday spirit...



...maybe this will...



Yeah yeah, I know - you hate me! ;-)

Video Games

Sharon and Andy came over recently for video game night. First we had a great dinner of marinated/grilled pork tenderloin sliced thin and served on the flatbread wraps, along with grilled red peppers, romaine lettuce, and peppercorn ranch dressing. I was shocked the four of us ate almost ALL of the TWO tenderloins I grilled - I figured I'd just grill both as a safety net, and that we'd have quite a bit leftover. Whew - good thing I did both! I don't even remember what else we had for dinner at this point - it's been a busy week. OH! And a HUGE bowl of homemade peanut butter cookies for dessert - mmmm!

And then it was time to get our game on! First we played two incredibly long games of Carcassonne - we'd never played four-ways before, which REALLY drags the game out. Sharon and Andy have a lot more practice act Carcassonne, and both had much higher scores than Brett and I.

While NONE of us are particularly SKILLED at Dead or Alive, it seems to get a lot of play time just for the high energy and shout-at-your-friends/loved-ones appeal. Here's Sharon and Brett taking turns kicking Andy's and my asses...


I believe that's Brett in the blue and white kicking my ass (I'm the leather chick with white hair) - I didn't realize it was switching back to my turn and I was still taking pics. Oops. One thing about this game - you almost ALWAYS have big, bouncy boobs while playing! In addition to the violence, it's no wonder straight guys love the game so much!


Here's Andy and me at one point during the game - he was the flamboyantly colored Jamaican-looking fighter in shiny green shorts, and I was the big, tough looking leather biker daddy. We got our asses handed to us - probably because we were each so out of character!? LOL


After dinner, games and a little TV time, Andy and Sharon decided it was time to head home...


I don't play Carcassonne by myself as much as Sharon and Andy do together, but I can still easily get wrapped up in a few games in an evening. Brett jokes about how the X-Box 360 Elite is just an expensive Carcassonne machine. I only just recently learned there was an Expert mode (doh - I always stopped at Hard!). Here's pics from two particularly interesting games of me vs the computer. In this first one, I had a HUUUUUGE castle in the lower right part of the map - I know Andy said he thought his biggest castle had scored 36 points - well this one was 38! Woo hoo!


And check out this game - I didn't realize what was going on til the very end... Turns out the computer scored ZERO points by the end of the game (pictured below)!! Only when the additional points started getting added up after the end of taking turns did she get more points (but no where near enough to beat me!). Booyah!

Deck Work

Unfortunately our deck isn't done yet. Weather and supplies haven't quite cooperated, plus there was a holiday. We're not worried about getting it done right away - it's so late in the season now that it's not like we're hurting to use it (sure, it'd be nice to have easy access to the back yard from the back door, but it's not a big deal going around the house).

As you can see in these pictures, Mother Nature hasn't been very cooperative:




Here's the samples of Trex we had to consider - with limitations. The lumber company our deck builder got the initial (really low) quotes from was no longer stocking the color we wanted most - Saddle (the tan one on the left in the following picture). We definitely ruled out the gray - Brett hated it. The other option was Madeira (the reddish color). At the last minute Todd also had a sample of Woodtone to show us - the really dark one on the left. While we liked that color, it turns out it's also not one he can get from the supplier (they're phasing out Trex apparently - so he can only get what they've still got in stock at the prices we were quoted). Oh well - we found we like the Madeira as well - a bit more reddish than we initially THOUGHT we would like, but it looks like it'll actually go with the colors of the house really well (I think moreso than the Saddle, which we initially wanted).



More work on the deck - this was last Wednesday morning before we left for New York for Thanksgiving. Todd (white ballcap) and his worker got the joist boards installed plenty quick.




Annnnd this is from yesterday afternoon - nothing new. We were hoping the Trex would arrive early this week and then be installed promptly after, and today's weather was good for working outside, but nothing new. I think Brett's planning to call tomorrow just to check in...

Tonite's Heroes

Tonite's episode of Heroes was great! It feels like things are really starting to pick up some steam on the show, and like some of the plot threads are starting to merge, which is always fun.

SPOILERS BELOW!!! So don't read on if you haven't watched tonite's episode yet!

I felt really bad for Monica when she got taken by the gang members - I hadn't cared too much for her up til now...maybe her acting is just a little flat? Seriously, that girl needs to watch some kung-fu movies! Do we know how long her absorbed abilities last? I was half expecting Micah to run over and tell the van he didn't want it to drive away... AND I figured Nikki was gonna show up on the spot and save the day. Wonder how this is going to go down!?

Peter vs Hiro? This should get interesting! If the battle actually starts up, it'd be nice to see Hiro use his teleporting ability to pop in and out around Peter's lightning blasts, a la Nightcrawler of the X-Men, but let's be honest, we don't really want to see these two fighting! They're both good guys!

The flashback to 1977 was a bit corny - especially the red wig!

How on Earth did Sylar get to Molly already!? Did they really trek across the U.S. that fast? Poor Alejandro - I totally didn't see that coming! Maybe he's not really dead?! Did he have a special ability to calm Maya, or was it just that she didn't want to kill her brother? If it was ability-based, could he be yet ANOTHER healer? (Like we need anymore of those on the show!)

So next week is the "Heroes finale" - but I thought they were planning to add in some "Heroes Origins" episodes, fleshing out some of the characters. Anyone hear anything new about this? Did this get canceled because of the impending (at the time) writer's guild strike?

FOLLOW UP NOTE: Aw bummer...

Buuuuusted!

While at my parents' neighbors for Thanksgiving dinner, it looks like Sarah was busted with her snacks and martini!! (Actually, I'm pretty certain that was someone else's drink) Sarah really plowed through the Fritos though! Between that, and then the fresh pineapple she scarfed up the next day, I'm surprised she didn't explode!

Blast from the past

Going through more of the pics of Thanksgiving from before we arrived, it looks like mom tried to get Emma and Sarah to pose with the creepy painting of Sean and I from when we were kids. The original photo wasn't creepy, but this replica she had made while we lived in Korea has always given me the willies! Hm. Looks like Sean and I was more cooperative about having our photo taken than Emma and Sarah!

Splish Splash Girls

My brother and sister-in-law arrived at my parents' the day before us, and it looks like the girls got to go out adventuring. It looks like Sarah's (2) going to be the more adventurous one, and that maybe Emma (4) is starting to get a bit more girly and less likely to stop in a puddle.

Jeph, Brett, Sarah, Emma

We went to the George Eastman House (yes, the guy who made Kodak) in Rochester on Friday so the girls could see the gingerbread house display (you'll see how this influenced our entertainment later). Near the coat check was a photobooth, and I couldn't resist the opportunity to have fun with the nieces, Brett and I got the girls in the booth with us and started posing. I'm clearly nowhere near as photogenic as Brett, and Emma looks like she was born to model! Emma seemed a little stunned by the bright flash - a bit surprising seeing how that's all she sees when around me or mom!

How far would YOU drive for Chick-Fil-A!?

Would you drive THIS far!?


As you can see, we put a lot of miles on the car before getting our fast food last Wednesday, but in reality, we were driving up to my parents' in Penfield (near Rochester), NY, and saw a new Chick-Fil-A in Erie. We couldn't pass THAT up!



MMMM - tasty good! And would you believe we stopped and got the same on the return trip? (So, technically, we drove 175 miles before getting Chick-Fil-A on Saturday!) There's a new Chick-Fil-A opening in Chapel Hill - just across the street from the Chipotles that opened up the DAY AFTER we moved from the condo (which is about 5 minutes from both Chipotles and the upcoming Chick-Fil-A) - how unfair is that!

Had we known the new Chick-Fil-A was going in, would we have moved? Hmm....

Garden Update

We've had another warm streak, with it getting into the 60s today, but the extra rain we've had lately, and most of the trees in the process of losing their leaves definitely lets one know fall is in the air! Here's a view of the backyard from back by the blueberries... Behind the blueberries are the freshly strawed strawberries (I'm assuming it was a deer that ate one plant entirely, but all the rest are left untouched - maybe the interplanted garlic is helping?). You can see the new compost bin in the back, with the three raised beds (two are planted and have row covers) to the right. To this side of the compost bin, and left of the raised beds, is the in-ground veggie garden, freshly cleaned of tomato cages, soaker hose, etc.


The in-ground veggie garden SERIOUSLY needs to be tilled - it's full of weeds! This picture shows the garbage can full of leaves Andy from work brought me today - they're unloaded in the front corner. I put on small tomato cage back up for the birds, which like to sit there and decide if it's safe to come up to the bird feeders.


These pics are in the raised beds (with the floating row cover visible in some shots). It's mostly lettuce, like here:


More lettuce varieties, plus stuff like broccoli, brussels sprouts, and cabbage, none of which I expect will come to fruition since I planted too late.


The kohlrabi, which I've never grown before (and have only cooked once!), are still small and cute. However, "small and cute" isn't really good or picking and cooking! Hurry up little guys - grow!


Cabbages and chards...


Brussels sprouts (?) and spinach. HEAVILY picked spinach!


Close ups of lettuce:


It's either the Cimmaron (red foreground lettuce above) or the red one below (New Red Fire?) that Brett's decided is too bitter and leathery for him... Not sure which - so he picks both out! ;-)


I'm thinking Salad Bowl here is one of my favorite surprises. Never grown it before, and it's so attractive AND tender!


Need to attach the front "door" on the compost bin, but I'm not sure I chose my construction well. Might empty, disassemble, and reassemble a little differently. I'm thinking I might try leaving space underneath (by strategically lifting a pallet) and then sliding a plastic tray with edges underneath - something to catch the natural drainage - aka compost tea that people have to make in buckets with cheesecloth. Kind of a pain. Why not let gravity do the work for me?! (Not certain that this'll actually work...like what if the worms can't travel between the compost and the ground?)

Oh, and that big rock is my "squatting rock" - for when I just want to sit and rest at the far end of the backyard and take in the sites. Tucker likes to sit on it too! Big thanks to Blake for helping get it there!


Here's the kale - I picked it for the first time tonite, giving the pickings to Dan (the retired farmer/leaf supplier) and his wife down the street, along with some lettuce, spinach, etc. Next round is mine!


The peas - doubt anything will come of these. :(

Our back yard - the mess!

We finally found someone we were happy with to build our deck. His quote was the best, he seemed nice to work with after coming out and viewing the site and discussing the project with us, and he got us a list of references - we checked out one of them and were amazed with his work from nearly a decade ago - so he's been in the business for awhile!

After telling Todd we were ready to go forward with the project, he was able to fit us in fast - he says he's got another project or two coming up, and figures he'll have our deck done within the next week! Wow!

The plan was for him to come out sometime late yesterday afternoon with the contract for me to sign, for us to give him the deposit, and for his guys to start digging holes and putting in posts. I was a little worried about a late afternoon start with it getting dark so early, and came home to find a pickup in the driveway and this in the backyard!





Turns out they were able to show up around 10:30 yesterday morning and got a good start on the project! Todd and his guy were working until just past "too dark" - I had all the lights on in the house, plus the back porch light (which isn't good for much), as they were wrapping up filling in the last of the concrete.

The plan was for a delivery of beams to be in the driveway when I got home today, while they let the concrete finish setting (and I'm sure they have another job going on), and then tomorrow they'll come out to build the structure, joists, etc.


I got home from work this afternoon - no wood in the driveway. Uh oh? Oh well - I'm sure it'd show up for them to do the job tomorrow. Putzed around the yard a bit, and realized there was a pile of wood over on the far side of the yard - I guess the delivery guy just dropped it off in the backyard.


The very wet backyard - we've had some good rainfall lately, and things are a bit muddy (there's mud clods all over the yard from yesterday's work). Oh, and it looks like the delivery truck found some soft areas of the yard...ooooh well...it's not the only spot we'll be fixing next spring, plus it's right on the edge.


After checking things out I went to pick spinach, lettuce, and other greens. Dan, the retired farmer down the street came over to visit and had me come get more leaves for the compost/garden - now that he's got a rake attachment for his rider mower, it's MUCH easier than the last two times I got leaves from him. It only took us 20 minutes to load the five Rubbermaid tubs full (PACKED full) of leaves, which I then hauled back in the garden cart (thanks again mom and dad!).

Brett's (Wendy's) Chili

Brett will usually eat chili when I make it, and we've both enjoyed Sharon's chili, but he says I recently got him hooked on Wendy's chili. I don't know what specific event he's referring to, but it's gotten quite entertaining. He's hooked. He's a Wendy's chili junkie. I'll find out he needed a quick fix of food and picked up some more chili. If we're going out to run errands and the topic of lunch comes up, he'll definitely be mentioning Wendy's chili. I love the stuff, so I'm not knocking ...but you have admit his love for it is fast and furious!

Anyhow, the idea came up that maybe Brett would make some Wendy's chili. We tracked down the recipe over at TopSecretRecipes.com, picked up the ingredients, and put him to work.

I took pictures to document the special occasion.

Simon just waited eagerly:


Brett doesn't like the idea of chopping onions, tomatoes, peppers, etc. He doesn't mind measuring ingredients and opening cans, but chopping?


No matter how much he hit me with the pouty face, I was letting this be his project!


Brett says he's never chopped/dices veggies before, and had me walk him through it. Sure, I was nervous he could lose a finger, but I have faith in him!


Oh, did I mention he's NEVER chopped an onion before? Heh heh...


Things got quite fun...





Lots of washing of the hands (hey, they show this all the time on Food Network nowadays!)


Dry your hands after washing so you don't slip and cut yourself with a freshly sharpened santoku knife!


Brett's nemesis (nemesii?) - the onions!






More washing of the hands!


This cooking show brought to you by...


Once it came to dicing the tomatoes, he asked me to help out. (Next time we'll probably just used canned tomatoes - but we really wanted to follow the recipe the first time - that even included using all the liquid/slime from the cans of beans - ODD! I've ALWAYS rinsed canned beans...)


Showing Brett's handiwork on the back of my hair...


Browning the beef...


We opted to swap in a bell pepper (which we KNOW Wendy's uses, but it wasn't in the recipe from the 90's) for the hot peppers called for in the recipe.


Now it's all assembled and ready for the hours long simmer!


Turned out pretty good!!! Brett loved it! The only thing I didn't care for was the recipe called for adding heat with black pepper (A LOT of black pepper) in addition to some cayenne and the chili peppers. I think Brett freshly grated a couple tablespoonfuls into the recipe? It was a little too strong of a black pepper taste/burn for me - a touch of bitterness near the back of the throat? But otherwise, REALLY good! We had it over white rice with crackers - yum!

Bok Choy

I pulled a bok choy last week - while the flowers may LOOK real pretty, you don't want it to start bolting and blooming like this - that's usually a sign the plant's going to start tasting bitter. Luckily this one didn't have a hint of bitterness to it...I sliced some up to put in Ramen, along with chicken, egg drop and spinach, when I was sick last week. Not sure what prompted the plant to start bolting - we haven't had any temps warm enough to cause it...

Frosty morning

Took these pictures one morning early last week - check out that frost on everything! Luckily I've lost none of the veggies in my raised beds because I've been row-covering the most delicate ones, and the others are fine with a bit of a frost. Sure is pretty! Before much longer that'll be snow all over the place...but for now we've gotten back to warmer temps and it's just raining.

Rainy weekend trapped indoors

What happens when you get a three day holiday weekend combined with crappy rainy weather? You run errands. You slowly put away all the Halloween party decorations. You get a lot of reading and watching of TV done. Some cooking. Have fun with the clippers. Look out the windows a lot, wishing you were out there working in the garden. Put up a new set of bird feeders out in the rain. Watch the birds. Play with the cats.

Wait, what was that about the clippers? Welllll....I had Brett cut my hair yesterday, and we decided to go with a mohawk - too bad it doesn't show up well in these pics. We weren't sure what to do with the back part at first, and so a last minute decision resulted in it being QUITE crooked!

I figure we'll trim it off before I go to work tomorrow... Brett really likes it, wants to cut the rest of the hair shorter to enhance it, and wants me to keep it.

These pics don't show what it looked like when I had it really spiked up with hair wax - it still wasn't your typical straight-and-spikey mohawk, but it was fun!

Vanessa's Buffalo Chicken Cheese Dip

[addendum: Nov 12, 2007 - Since Peter wanted to see pics, and this dip recipe got such good feedback, I figured I better make some (heh heh) and take some pics. Lightning wasn't great, and with the hot sauce and melted cheddar it takes on sort of a molten lava look to it - but it sure does taste good! I poached chicken breasts til done/tender, shredded/chopped them, and just stirred them into the softened cream cheese with the hot sauce, blue cheese dressing and half the cheddar, then piled on more cheddar. Baked til bubbly. We DEFINITELY approve!)




Vanessa and Paul brought a dish to the Halloween party this year that no one else had had before - Buffalo Chicken Cheese Dip. This stuff was GOOOOOD! Spicey too! I could see this almost being like a casseroley meal if you were to eat it with crusty bread or crackers (and lots of veggies or salad so you don't feel as guilty about making a meal out of it!)

Vanessa sent me her ingredients list, and I tracked down the rest of the cooking instructions online - turns out this recipe is all over the place if you know to look for it!

Buffalo Chicken Cheese Dip

• 2 cups cooked chicken in pieces or shredded (you can cook chicken breasts or used canned chicken)
• 2 cups shredded cheddar cheese (divided)
• 1/2 cup blue cheese salad dressing
• 16 oz of cream cheese, softened
• 5-8 oz Franks hot sauce (Vanessa used about 4 oz)

Heat chicken and red hot until heated through. Stir in cream cheese and dressing. Cook, stirring until well blended and warm. Mix in half the cheddar cheese. Now here's where the recipes I've seen diverge - you can either put the mixture in a slow cooker, add the remaining shredded cheddar on top, and cook on low til hot and bubbly, OR you can put it all in a pan (8x8 and 13x9 have both been recommended - Vanessa baked hers in a roughly 8x8 casserole dish), top with cheese, and bake at 350F for 20min.

Hm, some recipes go a much simpler route, suggesting you just spread the cream cheese into the pan first, then layer on the combined chicken and hot sauce, and then layer on the blue cheese dressing and shredded cheeses (Montery Jack is also recommended in place of cheddar).

There's obviously lots of ways you could go with this - and I'm sure they all taste great!

Sorry I don't have any pictures of this tasty treat, but I'm sure if you make it up and serve it with crackers or chips or even some crusty bread, you'll find the pictures don't do it justice!

at&t sucks

after 4 months of calling and complaining they finally came and buried our phone line yesterday.  oh yeah - and they chopped thru our cable line.  and the neighbor's cable line too!  time warner can't come out til tuesday at the earliest.  this sucks.  so i'm typing this from brett's ipod touch at panera.  four days without internet or email or our shows at home. what a pisser.

Check it oooooout! Woo hoo!