Can you be a little nicer on the road?
Sunday, August 31, 2008
Welcome
Along with everyone else in Birmingham, I welcome the evacuees from Louisiana, Mississippi, and south Alabama to find respite here. But I have one question:
Thursday, August 28, 2008
The New Bike
I got a new bike! I found it on craigslist.com about 4:15 this afternoon, and it was loaded up by 5:30. This was my first craigslist purchase and it was kinda cool.
It is a Trek 7.2 FX WSD.
It is a Trek 7.2 FX WSD.
Tuesday, August 26, 2008
A New Activity
Hubby's been working on a plan to lose some weight, and I've been struggling myself with feeling a little uncomfortable. I took a health and fitness class this summer and it made me realize that I am a fat lazy slob.
So, not only have I started eating better (thanks to Hubby), but now we have a new piece of motivation. Several years ago, I could run and run and run and drop weight like nobody's business. One problem with that now is that I have to actually run. Oh, and the whole bad knee thing. Then there's the weather and the dogs that always follow me and the kids that follow the dogs.
So, I found a solution. An elliptical machine. No impact on the knees, no dogs (sort of), no kids, no weather, no running. And...no excuse. I researched a few and decided on the Stamina CT2.0 from Walmart.com. It arrived to the store in about 4 days. I picked it up Sunday, put it together in 1 1/2 hours, and used it for the first time this morning. 15 minutes forward and 1 minute backwards. It doesn't sound like much, but that 1 minute going backwards is intense.
So, not only have I started eating better (thanks to Hubby), but now we have a new piece of motivation. Several years ago, I could run and run and run and drop weight like nobody's business. One problem with that now is that I have to actually run. Oh, and the whole bad knee thing. Then there's the weather and the dogs that always follow me and the kids that follow the dogs.
So, I found a solution. An elliptical machine. No impact on the knees, no dogs (sort of), no kids, no weather, no running. And...no excuse. I researched a few and decided on the Stamina CT2.0 from Walmart.com. It arrived to the store in about 4 days. I picked it up Sunday, put it together in 1 1/2 hours, and used it for the first time this morning. 15 minutes forward and 1 minute backwards. It doesn't sound like much, but that 1 minute going backwards is intense.
Spanakopitza
A coworker brought something similar to this to a department potluck. It was so tasty, I had to have the recipe. It goes something like this:
2 pie crusts - not in the tins
1 box of frozen spinach - thawed
or 2 good handfuls of fresh
some ricotta (1/2 a cup or so)
some mozzarella (1/2 a cup or so)
some parmesean (as much as you want)
garlic powder (or fresh squished)
mushrooms (sauteed would be nice!)
2 eggs
Preheat oven to about 350. Take pie crusts out of fridge to soften. Put a piece of foil on baking sheet and spray w/nonstick. Mix thawed spinach, ricotta, mozzarella, parmesean, garlic powder, 1 egg, mushrooms and/or whatever you want to add in a bowl. The pie crusts should be soft by now, carefully roll one out on the foil. Dump the mixture out on the pie crust and spread out to about 1 inch from the edge.
Put 2nd pie crust on top and fold edges together all the way around to seal. Poke a few holes or cut a few slits in the top to vent. Brush with egg wash. 
Cover with another piece of foil and bake for about 40 minutes or until tasty looking and golden. Remove from oven and let cool for about 10 minutes if you can stand it!
(I forgot the eggwash, and I thought that cheese on top would be a good idea...)
2 pie crusts - not in the tins
1 box of frozen spinach - thawed
or 2 good handfuls of fresh
some ricotta (1/2 a cup or so)
some mozzarella (1/2 a cup or so)
some parmesean (as much as you want)
garlic powder (or fresh squished)
mushrooms (sauteed would be nice!)
2 eggs
Preheat oven to about 350. Take pie crusts out of fridge to soften. Put a piece of foil on baking sheet and spray w/nonstick. Mix thawed spinach, ricotta, mozzarella, parmesean, garlic powder, 1 egg, mushrooms and/or whatever you want to add in a bowl. The pie crusts should be soft by now, carefully roll one out on the foil. Dump the mixture out on the pie crust and spread out to about 1 inch from the edge.
Put 2nd pie crust on top and fold edges together all the way around to seal. Poke a few holes or cut a few slits in the top to vent. Brush with egg wash. 
Cover with another piece of foil and bake for about 40 minutes or until tasty looking and golden. Remove from oven and let cool for about 10 minutes if you can stand it!
(I forgot the eggwash, and I thought that cheese on top would be a good idea...)
Thursday, August 21, 2008
Sunday, August 17, 2008
Happy Birthday, Hubby!
Last week, we started our trip to Glacier National Park, Montana. Hubby's birthday was last week and I had a wonderful surprise adventure planned. We left work Thursday afternoon for the airport and got to Atlanta. And stayed there. Our connecting flight boarded early (how does that even happen?) and we were bumped along with about a dozen other people. Having booked the flight through Travelocity, I immediately got on the phone. I was connected to a man named "Abraham" who sounded like he was probably somewhere between Kuwait and China. After explaining our predicament and being put on hold several times, he said that Travelocity could not help us and we would have to deal with an agent. So much for that trip guarantee.
The Delta agent found a few flights for us, but none of them were leaving Atlanta until late the next day. From as early as noon to as late as 7pm. One of them was to LAX then Salt Lake. One was our original plan straight to Salt Lake, but didn't leave until 6:30 the next night. After declaring that I would never use Travelocity or Delta again, she magically found a flight leaving at 7 am to put us in Salt Lake by 9 am. Done. I still probably won't ever fly Delta again. The flight attendants didn't seem very friendly and their intercom skills were a little lacking. They all sounded somewhat inebriated.
We finally made it Salt Lake City and proceeded directly to the parking lot where Jenny and Dan had very generously left one of their cars for us. We drove from Salt Lake to Columbia Falls, Montana where Jenny found an awesome cabin from Wild River Adventures . The drive was a lot longer than yahoo maps let on, but it was beautiful. Dan and Chrishan met up with us in Columbia Falls to lead us to the cabin. Thanks guys!
I managed to acquire a killer migraine on the trip from Salt Lake and that combined with a really long day sent us both straight to bed. Saturday morning Dan cooked an awesome breakfast for everyone. Shan (you're a lifesaver!) worked some kind of magic on my head and neck that relieved the worst of my headache so I was able to enjoy the hike to Avalanche Lake. After lunch, we headed back to the cars and drove to the Hidden Lake Visitor Center. We all decided that we would hike Hidden Lake the next day and headed back to the Chalet.
Dan cooked an amazing dinner for all of us: grilled steak and chicken, baked potatoes, and squash and zucchini. We surprised Hubby (again) with a rich chocolate cake. In the absence of candles, Dan improvised with matches and nearly lost a finger.
Sunday we headed back to Hidden Lake. The change in weather was really weird. Saturday was beautiful and sunny, not too hot. Sunday was overcast, windy and cold. We still enjoyed a beautiful hike to the overlook, though. Had the weather been better, we would have hiked all the way down to the lake. After returning to the parking lot, we all decided (at Dan's suggestion) to do lunch in St. Mary's, and found The Curly Bear. We drove back to the Chalet for some rest. Dan cooked another stellar meal of quesadillas.
Sadly, Hubs and I had to get to bed early so we could leave by 5 the next morning. We left out a little early and took a different route suggested by Dan and Chrishan. It was a much more scenic route and seemed a bit faster. We arrived at the Salt Lake Airport in plenty of time to catch our plane. Once we got to Denver and checked in, we saw Martina Navritilova and her family, as well as her little pet dog.
We had such a great time with everyone and meeting the kids. We're already looking forward to another big vacation next year.
There's a bunch a pictures. We got some really good ones, and I just couldn't pick any favorites.
(blogger won't let me embed picasa album right now :(. check back later)
The Delta agent found a few flights for us, but none of them were leaving Atlanta until late the next day. From as early as noon to as late as 7pm. One of them was to LAX then Salt Lake. One was our original plan straight to Salt Lake, but didn't leave until 6:30 the next night. After declaring that I would never use Travelocity or Delta again, she magically found a flight leaving at 7 am to put us in Salt Lake by 9 am. Done. I still probably won't ever fly Delta again. The flight attendants didn't seem very friendly and their intercom skills were a little lacking. They all sounded somewhat inebriated.
We finally made it Salt Lake City and proceeded directly to the parking lot where Jenny and Dan had very generously left one of their cars for us. We drove from Salt Lake to Columbia Falls, Montana where Jenny found an awesome cabin from Wild River Adventures . The drive was a lot longer than yahoo maps let on, but it was beautiful. Dan and Chrishan met up with us in Columbia Falls to lead us to the cabin. Thanks guys!
I managed to acquire a killer migraine on the trip from Salt Lake and that combined with a really long day sent us both straight to bed. Saturday morning Dan cooked an awesome breakfast for everyone. Shan (you're a lifesaver!) worked some kind of magic on my head and neck that relieved the worst of my headache so I was able to enjoy the hike to Avalanche Lake. After lunch, we headed back to the cars and drove to the Hidden Lake Visitor Center. We all decided that we would hike Hidden Lake the next day and headed back to the Chalet.
Dan cooked an amazing dinner for all of us: grilled steak and chicken, baked potatoes, and squash and zucchini. We surprised Hubby (again) with a rich chocolate cake. In the absence of candles, Dan improvised with matches and nearly lost a finger.
Sunday we headed back to Hidden Lake. The change in weather was really weird. Saturday was beautiful and sunny, not too hot. Sunday was overcast, windy and cold. We still enjoyed a beautiful hike to the overlook, though. Had the weather been better, we would have hiked all the way down to the lake. After returning to the parking lot, we all decided (at Dan's suggestion) to do lunch in St. Mary's, and found The Curly Bear. We drove back to the Chalet for some rest. Dan cooked another stellar meal of quesadillas.
Sadly, Hubs and I had to get to bed early so we could leave by 5 the next morning. We left out a little early and took a different route suggested by Dan and Chrishan. It was a much more scenic route and seemed a bit faster. We arrived at the Salt Lake Airport in plenty of time to catch our plane. Once we got to Denver and checked in, we saw Martina Navritilova and her family, as well as her little pet dog.
We had such a great time with everyone and meeting the kids. We're already looking forward to another big vacation next year.
There's a bunch a pictures. We got some really good ones, and I just couldn't pick any favorites.
(blogger won't let me embed picasa album right now :(. check back later)
Sunday, August 3, 2008
Additions
Little Girl had 4 babies on June 11.
So far we have been calling them
#4 will probably stay with us (because we need one more pet), Uno probably has a home, and Tux and Yoda will probably go to Pa Keeper.
So far we have been calling them
Uno
Tux
Yoda
and #4.
#4 will probably stay with us (because we need one more pet), Uno probably has a home, and Tux and Yoda will probably go to Pa Keeper.
Adventures
The weekend after the Fourth, we went to St. Joseph's Peninsula State Park near Cape San Blas, Florida. The afternoons were nice, but both mornings we were there, terrible storms blew in. Sunday morning, we didn't really even pack the tent, it just sort of got rolled up and stuffed in the bag. The wind was so bad, the stakes were pulled up, and it was like fighting a hot air balloon to pack up. We haven't pulled the tent out yet to clean up all the dirt and sand. Not really looking forward to that.
We took everything we needed for the camping trip and planned a crab boil for the second night. We bought an extra dip net, turkey necks, and fishing licenses. Two years ago, we caught about 20 crabs, but didn't know what we were doing and killed them all. After researching how to catch, cook, prepare and eat, we set out to crab. For this:
Three crabs and about an ounce or so of meat.
These are the other pictures from the trip, all taken with my cell phone.
We took everything we needed for the camping trip and planned a crab boil for the second night. We bought an extra dip net, turkey necks, and fishing licenses. Two years ago, we caught about 20 crabs, but didn't know what we were doing and killed them all. After researching how to catch, cook, prepare and eat, we set out to crab. For this:
Three crabs and about an ounce or so of meat.
These are the other pictures from the trip, all taken with my cell phone.
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