8-31-09 Cleaning House

Monday involved cleaning house for guests to arrive on Tuesday and making pierogi and andouille sausage for dinner. No picture.

8-30-09 Trader Joe's

Before we left Atlanta, we visited a Trader Joe's and picked up a few things, not least of which includes some mini peanut butter cups, some honey sesame cashews, ginger beer, and a 12-bean soup mix. Sadly, since it was Sunday, I was unable to purchase a bottle of happiness.

8-29-09 Good Eats 10th Birthday Celebration

Ventured to Atlanta to attend the 10th Birthday Celebration for Good Eats! Had a super awesome time and it was totally worth the drive and time spent away from kitties!

I took this picture as I opened the program from the performance and found a hand-written autograph from none-other than Alton Brown. The ladies sitting next to us had autographs in green ink - likely one pen ran out. I can't believe he personally signed autographs for every program - roughly 6,000 autographs, based on the capacity for the Cobb Energy Performing Arts Centre. Indicative that he cares about his fans. This, as you might expect, brought me to tears right there in my balcony seat. I didn't get to meet the man, but I still felt touched that he took the time to do that for me and each other fan in attendance. Thanks AB. Thanks Good Eats Cast and Crew!

08-28-2009 Steelers Gear

Of course, it's not sanctioned by the NFL, but these here balls of yarn are going to turn into a Steelers scarf for lil ol me. :)

8-27-09 Cookbooks

Anyone who knows me even a little knows I'm passionate about cooking and food. I have a whole slew of cook books and recipes printed out from various sites and blogs I have found. It's a big ol' mess in my kitchen book shelves. I aspire to do something to organize and clean out these books. Perhaps I'll start putting some up with the summer clothes...

My favorites are probably the Weight Watchers Cookbook that I was gifted from my longest friend V. and the one that I received as a favor from one of my family reunions which contains many family recipes. The most used cook books are probably Betty Crocker and Classic Vegetarian, though my new Baker's cook book has been getting a lot of use lately.

What's your favorite cook book?

8-26-2009 Sen. Ted Kennedy

The United States lost a good leader. He had fought for and realized, in spite of his immense material wealth, many changes to help the everyday man. He gave back and definitely deserved the name Kennedy. He will be missed.

8-24-2009 Armageddon + Groceries

No photo, I'm afraid.

Upon getting home, J was watching Armageddon. That frickin' movie makes me cry every time. After that, we ventured out to get groceries.

8-23-09 Leftovers

"I'm glad you're not a picky eater," I said.
"Why?"
"Because if you were, we wouldn't get to have breakfasts this good."

Dinner leftovers turned into a lovely, hearty breakfast.

8-22-09 Study, Buddy

I am scheduled to take a certification exam for work in October. Unfortunately, this means studying outside of work time. The weather allowed for open windows at the end of August this past weekend. Needless to say, the kitties appreciated it!

8-21-09 Talking Time

Two very good friends came over for some important time spent talking Friday night. Poor J. was falling asleep in the chair so we sent him up to bed around 10:30.

8-20-09 Stuffed Shells

When we first moved to Arkansas from up north, we had trouble finding some of the noodle varieties we were used to having from living in an area with a high concentration of Italians. I complained without end about it. A family member brought down some pasta on one visit and my mom sent me back with some after another return trip. We have since been able to find some additional varieties, with the exception of my favorite pasta of all time: cavatelli.

Anyway, after a business trip, it was nice to come home to a home-cooked meal and a smiling face.

8-19-09 Italian Food in Arkieland

One thing I have noticed about living in Arkansas: the Arkansans treat the STATE like a city. If you talk to people who live in Little Rock, they'll tell you where to eat when you're headed to the other side of the state. I guess Ohioans do that to some degree too, but I don't know that restaurants' reputations extend three hours away. Tontitown was settled by Italians in the late 1800s. Since I had to travel to the region for work, I thought a visit to the legendary Tontitown restaurants was merited. I dined tonight at the Venesian Inn (no it isn't a typo...). I dined on homemade spaghetti with meat sauce and meatballs.

8-18-09 Raw Foods Class

J and I attended a raw foods class tonight. It was a very basic class in which we learned some of the basic principles of raw food, learned what a vitamix is and prepared three dishes. We tasted a total of seven dishes (the instructor Lorna - seen below - prepared some as a demo). The dishes included a green smoothie, cream of broccoli soup, nut mylk, tzatziki on cucumbers, ole cheese, and cheesecake with blueberry sauce. (note: the links I have posted aren't necessarily from the instructor but wanted to share some of the general information I learned.) Most of the dishes were made with nuts as a base or a major ingredient. Lorna said she wanted to prepare things that would be simple for us to replicate at home and for raw food starters.

Here's a picture of the raw "cheesecake" which has no dairy. I don't remember all the ingredients, but I know it had cashews, coconut, coconut milk (made from coconut and water). It didn't taste like cheesecake exactly, but it was a decent approximation.

I think I liked the ole "cheese" the best which was a nut-based "cheese" spread which had jalepenos, sundried tomatoes, onion, garlic, cilantro, and would make a really a excellent dip at a party.

8-17-09 Plastic Bag

We adopted the smallest kitty LB on June 11. Since then the larger tortoise shell kitty (Kira) has pretty much had a conniption when he was even in the same level of the house with him. She is finally starting to warm up to him a little (only minor growls instead of hissing and running away when he comes near her). Anyway, they were almost playing together over this bag tonight. Very cute. Paulo, the fluffy orange one, just laid there and observed, as he does most of the time.

8-16-09 Bridal Fair

A friend of mine is getting married in March 2011. She invited me to join her at the Little Rock Bridal Fair. Her main goals were to see about a venue for the wedding and get a start on the planning. We walked around and gathered cards and pamphlets from several vendors. I took a few pictures and got some kind of smelly soy wax rubbed on my left hand (before I realized what she was doing it was too late to protest).

8-15-09 Snuggle

The lighting is pretty bad in this picture, but it's evidence that LB does slow down long enough to snuggle with Paulo sometimes. It was so sweet. I was sitting in the chair and Paulo was hanging where he usually does. B had finally done enough running around and he decided a snuggle with a fluffy orange kitty was right on time. I usually feel that way too!

8-14-09 Whiteboard

We write all the tasks we hope to complete in a day, week or weekend on this whiteboard on my refrigerator. Friday morning saw it with a pretty long list including cleaning for the week and several other chores. We busted our butts to get it mostly cleared by Friday evening so that we could generally relax all weekend. Although we didn't get everything done it felt good to wipe away most of the junk.


You can see the other odds and ends of life - a picture of a friend's sister and a picture of some friends on their wedding day, along with a note about our retirement accounts, plus a flyer from a company which does powerwashing of houses (something we need to get done). You'll also see the giant stack of Box Tops for Education waiting for a friend's daughter to return to school! ;)

Progress

I started doing this roughly at the beginning of June, though my daily picture taking in the early part of the month was spotty at best. Since then I have done a pretty consistent job of taking at least a picture a day, though I have missed a few and haven't stressed about it. (Good for me!) It seems like the majority of what I do during the week that I find interesting involves cooking, kitties or driving across the Arkansas River and looking at the sky and clouds. Some of my weekend pictures tend to be of different activities or places.

I would like to challenge myself to try to capture photos outside of this realm, but the problem is, on week days, I generally only go to work and back home unless there is some sort of an errand to run. I would also like to carry my actual camera with me more often. I had a decent photo to take last night and discovered that I'd inadvertently left my camera at work from downloading the photo from yesterday. These will be my goals from here on out.

Thanks for reading!

8-13-09 Kitty Maintenance

Treated kitties for fleas since LB brought some with him and they've spread to Paulo. Poor fluffy orange kitty. Hopefully this helps.

B also scratched the crap out of my thigh when he saw Paulo and took off running for him.

8-12-09 Swimming on a Wednesday

Went swimming with some friends after work. The weather was beautiful and the water was warm. We had fun squirting water at one another using foam water cannons.

8-11-09 Sunrise over the Arkansas River

I cross the Arkansas River twice daily on my commute to and from work. The sunrise was particularly beautiful behind the clouds and I snapped a quick photo of it on my mobile. It's a great way to start and end each day (when the traffic isn't too heavy - that is)!

08/10/2009 Green Tomatoes

Did some work tidying up the garden and tying up the tomato plants which are nearly 6 feet tall. We have at least 10 green beefsteak tomatoes on the vine along with handfulls of cherry tomatoes. I can't wait to sink my teeth into these puppies!

8-9-09 Buried Kitty

We got home from vacation last night and as I unpacked the suitcases, I noticed that Kira had situated herself in the laundry basket. As I kept adding clothes she remained where she was until I had quite a pile on top of her. Silly comfy kitty.

8-8-09 Raleigh Farmer's Market

Much larger than Little Rock's farmer's market. Beautiful produce abounded.

8-7-09 Grilled Walu from Indigo Marsh

The service was a little slow, but the food was absolutely delicious at Indigo Marsh in Surf City, NC.

8-6-09 Coastal Shopping

Found this awesome shop while out shopping during vacation. Check them out online!

8-5-09 Sunrise

8-4-09 Sunset

8-3-09 Pier Fishing and Beach Time

In the morning, Jason, my brother, my brother-in-law and I went fishing down at the pier, a few miles from the rental house where we're staying. We caught a few small fish, but we were mostly going for the experience. It was fun.
After fishing, a few of us spent some time down at the beach. I stuck my toes in the sand. I <3 the beach.

8-2-09 Shark Store

We needed a skim board, a raft, and a wave board. Where else to go but inside the big shark's mouth?

8-1-09 Chipotle Fix

If you've never patronized a Chipotle before and have access to one, you simply must try it. Their food is delicious. We discovered one near the airport into which we flew on Saturday and had to stop there for lunch, having not been to one for months.



While there, we noticed this poster on the wall, regarding the film "Food, Inc." I think you can read the quote on the poster, which is attributed to Steve Ellis, the Founder and Co-CEO of Chipotle.