New House Photos

I know you are all just besides yourselves waiting for pictures of the house. Well, wait no more, at least for before pictures. Mircea and I have been hard at work repairing, painting, cleaning, etc. So I'll have some after pictures pretty soon to share as well. I'll start the photo tour with the good, but it gets pretty ugly pretty quickly (but nothing a little paint can't fix).

Supporting our teams. Go Colts!

The view from the front of the house. You can see the Chesapeake Bay from the house and we can see more and more everyday as the leaves fall. I'll take it!

The fireplace...I'd already started priming the room.


In a sad turn of events, I hadn't started priming this room. We think they ran out of paint while they were painting it. Love the pink carpet too. The previous owner had two little girls.

Mircea should be ashamed of this picture. It doesn't show that gorgeous Bratz doll wall border on the wall. I'll retake that one later so you can see. It's crazy.

The dining room. Which we will use approx 1x a year, but it's nice to have the space. I had a blast steam cleaning all of the carpet. And it still needs replaced, but alas, I'd need a second job to afford that.

The master bath. My favorite room in the house. It's about the size of our old master bedroom so we definitely appreciate all the room that we have. It also has a two person soaking tub, and Mircea actually got it to work. So we used it once...but man if it didn't take so much hot water I'd be in there daily!

A not so exciting picture of the master. I told Mircea he is fired as photographer. Chantelle, wanna come over?

The kitchen, a total mess b/c it was cleaning central.

The living room, which is actually our office because what the heck would we do with a formal living room. It's nice to have the big office space too.

Well, that's all I have. The after pictures will be slightly more exciting, and I'm sure this is just so thrilling for everyone, but I'm so happy to get to share this experience with my friends. I thank you for all your support through this roller coaster ride (and the many I seem to allow myself to be a part of) and listening to me vent. You're the best, and there's a hot pink guest room with your names on it!

Cooking Catch-Up

I'm not going to pretend that everything I've made in the last few weeks looks wildly appealing. Or that my pictures are very good (I really like my old camera) . But the food was all pretty darned delicious. I'll share some of the recipes, some aren't mine to share.

I decided that I wanted to have some italian food, other than pasta with sauce. I decided that there was no reason I couldn't bread tofu, bake it, and put a little pasta sauce on it. It was awesome. In the oven the tofu sort of took on a cheesy sort of texture and flavor and it really seemed like a huge mozzarella stick. I put a little Follow Your Heart Mozzarella on it and it was just delicious. Easy peasy. I popped it in the oven at 375 for about 15 minutes, flipping halfway through. Oh man, that was so good. I had that last night.
I have no idea what this is. I think is is tofu, zucchini, squash, and maybe some tomatoes. Whatever it was, it's pretty and colorful and I guarantee tasty because if I don't like it, it goes into the compost.

This is that herb soup I posted about from Veganomicon. It was good but I had an overload of dill so it was a bit much. Those crackers in there are the Everything crackers from Trader Joe's. They are a must buy.
I have to shout out to Lindsay that she opened my eyes to the idea of a vegetable fajita. I don't like peppers. Oh wait, I never had them. I don't like green peppers, but red and yellow are really good. These were my super colorful fajitas with a lot of avocado on there. And I didn't have sliced olives, so I just threw some whole ones on there. DELICIOUS!!
From Vegan Cupcakes Take Over the World. My "poop icing" version of a chocolate on chocolate cupcake. Tastes like Heaven. HEAVEN.
This is the pineapple quinoa meal from Veganomicon. I thought it was ok. I like the quinoa but this left a lot to be desired. I blame myself b/c I didn't have all the fresh ingredients, but such is life.
This last one is Rodica's (Mircea's mama) version of potato salad. It basically consists of black olives, tomatoes, green onions, cucumber, red pepper, olive oil, salt and a little vinegar. It is awesome, except I don't like cucumber or red pepper (raw) but she was here and it was her special request. Seriously, it is delicious. Plus, it's the best part of being vegan-potato salad you don't have to refridgerate. Is that really the best part? Maybe.

He's a Tawny Kitaen/Prehistoric Fish

Our little boy thought he was in a Whitesnake video a couple of nights ago. I thought he was adorable and had to share a picture. When I get close to him with the camera he has started yelling at me like "Mom, stop embarassing me".

This picture is of what appeared to be a fish with legs. When we went fishing yesterday we caught all kinds of crazy stuff, including flouder (which look nothing like Ariel's friend). Does anyone have any clue what this fish is? It is kind of hard to see, but the fish clearly has legs and a weird mouth. Thoughts?

We're busy with house stuff so I haven't been blogging as much. I have done some movie reviews and will start posting those as fillers. Tomorrow the realtor is coming over to give us some ideas, we're still waiting for an estimate to get the repairs, and we're looking at a very promising house. Wish us luck. We're stressing.

My Babies: Diabetes Guilt Trip Edition

The babies get special food now and I'll expand on that later. Basically there is a lot of discussion out there about how cats need a lot of taurine in their diet and that wet food is the most appropriate food for felines. Wet food that doesn't have a lot of carbs that is, and not much in the plant department either. Like I said, I'll bore the hell out of everyone with that later.

But here's some not boring adorable pictures of the babies enjoying their wet food. Well, except Lily b/c she'd already finished by the time I started taking the photos.

A Photo Tour of My San Diego Trip

I spent a week in San Diego for an Unmanned Air Vehicle trade show (AUVSI). It was really fun, but there was also a lot of downtime, so I got to spend some time by the pool and out with my friends. I was lucky enough to see George for lunch, but my dearest Rebecca was in Ohio, enjoying a training class. I know I'll see her again-I know it!

We went out for some drinks in Little Italy and it was fun. Here I am wearing some glasses. I think they make me look more intelligent. Some yummy gelato. The fruit flavors were dairy-free so I had a triple threat of pear, banana and melon. Delicious!
Some pretty flowers on my walk back to the hotel from my tour of San Diego. (It was an eating tour on the last day. I had to walk it off, slowly, so I stopped to smell the roses)

Best of 2007

I’ve decided to give myself a year in review, but just the things I’m thinking about…nothing serious. The following are my more memorable moments of 2007.

Sports:

As I sat outside in sunny San Diego watching the game on a big screen that my friends put on their back porch, I thought to myself “there’s no place better than here to watch this thing.” I was so happy that the Colts won and that Mr. Manning finally broke the Super Bowl seal. I’ve enjoyed the Colts as well this season, and win or lose, those are my boys!!!


Trip:

I couldn’t have asked for a better work rotation. I got some great experience at the office, but I also met some wonderful people that have turned into lifelong friends. San Diego really was one of the best places I’ve ever been and I hope to return there permenantly at some point in my life.

Most Disgusting:

When I found a pair of dirty men’s underpants behind the tv in my room at the hotel. That was just so gross that I’m pretty sure I’ll never get over it.

Worst Movie:

Wicker Man. I still get mad when I think about this movie and I’ve seen two people with it in their hands at the video store and Best Buy and I’ve told them to “keep on looking” and pass up that disgustingly stupid timewaster of a movie. I feel like I’m giving that movie the satisfaction by remaining in my head, but I hate it so much that I can’t really seem to get over it.

Strangest Blog Post:

Milkweed. But hey, now you know.

Best Video:

Sims 2, Goodbye My Lover. First of all, what a great song in general, but to have the Sims 2 associated with it makes it all that more bittersweet. You’d all be proud to know that I have never actually tried to make a video like that on my computer. Not because I don’t have time (I don’t) but because I don’t know how to do it. If I did, you’d see some sweet “shorts” by Ms. Katey Pooh

Best Picture:

The drunken St. Patty’s Day at Mc P’s in Coronado. I don’t ever want to drink that much again and I really believed that I was going to die, but I love this picture. We’d just finished a chugging contest and Allison looked pretty happy, I look like I’m belching (clearly in pain) and poor Rebecca is praying to the God of Chugging contests. It was a really fun night, until I started crying that I needed the Romanians to take care of me.

Photo Excursion Day One

I'm on the prowl for photos of San Diego. Well, I'm on the prowl around San Diego taking photos. I don't consider myself a very good photographer (frame it, frame it!) but I like to play around and I intend on taking a class after I finally get done with grad school. Today after work I went with my friend George to Balboa Park to get more photos. We wanted to go to the Japanese Friendship Garden that was closed when Mircea and I went, but guess what? It was closed. It closes at 4 so I'm going to go tomorrow after work and then make it back in time for my PT session with Fred at 5:30. (and damnit if I can't figure out how to make them big when you click them. It's totally hit or miss. I want you guys to see how purty these are up close)

George and I being silly

The Horsey Sculpture (I like the use of foreground in this one)

I think this one is my favorite

I like the shadow of the palm tree on the steeple