More News About Food...and Other Stuff

So far my new 'domestic system' is working out well! We've tried 5 of the 6 recipes (the Chicken Curry in a Hurry being planned for dinner tomorrow night). Our favorite so far? The Beef Teriyaki. It was delicious! The sauce tasted like the sauce used at our favorite Japanese restaurants around here. It was so good I'm planning to make it again next week. 

Second favorite was definitely the Big Beef Burger Stack-Ups, followed by the Balsamic-Glazed Pork Chops. Neither of us liked the Chicken Schnitzel, and we agreed that the Beef and Broccoli Stir-Fry was better the second night after sitting around in the sauce all day. Funny how that can help...

I'm really excited about this next week because Matt bought me a Slap Chop. It will definitely go to good use. After a week of chopping onions, ginger, parsley, cilantro...I'm ready for a nifty kitchen gadget. The menu this upcoming week includes the Beef Teriyaki in addition to Crispy Rosemary-Orange Chicken and Chipotle Chicken Rolls with Avocado Dipping Sauce. I'm also planning to make ice cream out of goat milk this weekend. I'm really excited about it - especially since I've been craving a milkshake for almost a month!


So my life in the last couple of weeks hasn't revolved around food completely. Other recent updates include (in reverse chronological order):

• Seis de Mayo party! Our life group (small group) had fun celebrating Seis de Mayo with a Mexican potluck today because it was more convenient with our schedules. Matt and I were bringing the beverages and we found a recipe for virgin sangrias which meant we needed something to put it in...so Matt bought one of those summer-y pitcher things I'd looked at several times we were at Fred Meyer but couldn't justify buying. It was on sale and we needed it, so the buying was justified :)
• Dollhouse & Bones - I recently got into these shows thanks to the Netflix Instant Queue. Dollhouse is slightly addictive...I went through almost the entire first season within a week. Sadly the last episode is available on disc only, but the good news is it arrived in the mail today! I also started watching Bones. Not nearly as addictive, but the first few episodes have been fun so far. It's nice to watch when I feel like watching TV for about an hour without committing to a full movie.
• Reuse Fair - Last weekend we helped out at the Community Garage Sale and Reuse Fair. With about 200 vendors, there were a lot of people selling stuff! After the fair ended, vendors had the option to donate their stuff to the Goodwill truck on-site. There was a LOT of stuff leftover. We stuck around to help load the two trucks and filled them completely. There was another truckload and a half leftover that we put aside for the Goodwill to pick up on Monday. As tired as I was from hauling boxes, bags and coffee tables the next day, I had fun helping out.
• Girls' Night - A couple of my friend's friends also came into town last weekend for a wedding, so she invited me to come hang out and watch girly movies with them. I forgot how much I like Ever After. It's just a really good story. I know it's Cinderella, but I like they way it's told and the various liberties they take. While there, I also learned how to play a new card game, and there were freshly baked chocolate chip cookies so I was a very happy camper. Mmmm....cookies.
• Dinner & Games - Last week we had another young couple from church come over for dinner and games. We had a lot of fun - they have tons of games that were quite entertaining, including the Newlywed Game and Scene It. Matt and I lost at the Newlywed Game, but in our defense they've been married about a year longer. That and Matt should have read my mind better...haha. Scene It was really fun, too. I was so close to beating Matt. I made it into the inner circle first, but he got the answers  correct first and therefore won :( We still had fun, though.

On that note, Dollhouse is calling my name...

Mom and Dad Come to Town

I've been intending to write this post all week but just haven't found the time. My parents came up and visited! We had a lot of fun with them while they were here.

The first thing we did was find the train station since they decided to ride it up as opposed to driving or flying. It's actually really close to where we live - only about 5 minutes away. They completely sold me on wanting to take the train down to California sometime, even though it takes longer and seems to always be behind schedule. It sounded much more comfortable than flying and more leisurely than driving. 

After hanging out with us for the night, they went up to visit some family friends on the San Juan Islands. It looks BEAUTIFUL there. I can't wait until Matt and I have a chance to make it up. Not only did they come back with gorgeous pictures, but my mom also found a really cute jacket and an extremely soft alpaca hat and set of gloves. Just from the way they told us about it, I could tell they had a lot of fun visiting.

Over the weekend they were here we did a few different things with them:

Visited Experience Music Project and the Science Fiction Museum. Both were pretty cool and worth checking out. I'm my father's daughter, so I liked the Science Fiction Museum better than the music part, although the room where you got to try different instruments was pretty cool, as were the band pictures we got to take!

Wandered around Pike's Place Market for a while. My mom even found this guy selling ocarinas and discovered her favorite ocarina back at home was made by his father. She talked to him for a while and even got to try out one of his flutes.

Finally at ate Ivar's. A few years ago when my parents were dropping me off at school, we took some time to head over to Bainbridge Island to see my dad's cousin. He saw Ivar's from the ferry and decided we should eat there. Of course, we didn't have time that trip since we ate dinner with his cousin on the island, but he remembered it when we were talking about what to do in Seattle, so we took them down to the waterfront so my dad could eat at Ivar's.

Played a rousing game of Scrabble. Back when I was in high school, my mom and I played Scrabble and I won. She refused to play with me again, which just shows how competitive she is. Apparently, she didn't know she was refusing to play with me again and the only reason we didn't play again was because we never got around to it...needless to say, my mom won, but only because I had so many Os. You can't make any good words when you have four Os, two Es, and a U.

Ate at Daddy O's, The Ram, Brewery City Pizza and Safura's  Mediterranean Cuisine. Yes I'm my father's daughter, but I'm also my mother's daughter. I really enjoy eating, so where we eat is usually a highlight for me. The four restaurants above are some of our local favorites. I would also add Koibito to the list - we just didn't have the time to take them there, too.

Took them to church. They decided to stay through the weekend so they could check Life Pointe out. I love how the week they visited, the sermon started with the play as an example of how something might seem over, but it's not. I would have been excited about that any Sunday, but the fact that my dad was there, too...there were two happy Cal fans sitting in that cafeteria.


Needless to say, Matt and I had a great time with my parents. We love it when people visit! Especially people that want to take us out to dinner...although that's not a requirement =)

A Much-Needed Update

I know I've been completely ignoring my blog lately and it's been over two months. I've been meaning to post for weeks, but unfortunately haven't found the time. Here are a few quick updates, until I have a chance to really expand on my thoughts:

Matt and I got cell phones! I now have an HTC Driod Eris and completely love it. Last night I finally personalized a bit and made the Firefly theme my ringtone =D I missed having a cell phone during those months we didn't have them. Now with my smart phone I can use Twitter, Facebook, Gmail and Google Calendar right from my phone. I've also gotten into Foursquare and Yelp, too! My new challenge: creating boundaries for embracing social media and being connected online vs shutting it off and being connected with people face-to-face. The good part about that is Matt has no problem telling me it's time to put the phone down.

Side note on Yelp: it's been especially useful in discovering local places to check out. Last week we found a Mediterranean restaurant with Delicious gyros and reasonable prices. Win!

My new favorite board game = Talisman. Our friend Josh introduced us to it, and it's really fun! It's kind of like Dungeons & Dragons, but it's a board game and limited to a few hours (I don't have the attention span to actually play D&D, although I'm not opposed to the concept). We've played it twice so far, and both times were great - except for that part where I was turned into a toad...

It's fun using work skills for personal interests. I'm really excited that I get to help out with marketing at church and use skills I've learned for work to get the word out about Life Pointe. As with all marketing, it takes time, so we've put together a strategy that uses more of a slow and steady approach, but I've been having fun exploring options, and am excited to see how everything unfolds over the next year.

Okay, I know there is a lot more to say, but I also know it's getting late and I should start thinking about going to sleep...I'll try to update more regularly, though, and will include more in my next post.

Puzzle, Pizza and Playing

I finished the jigsaw puzzle! After I'd given up, I wasn't ready to put what I'd done away and Matt started working on it. His progress inspired me to give it another shot and, after a couple of days, we placed the final pieces. Yay for teamwork =) Sadly there was a piece missing even though it was brand new. Oh well, if we'd had it, we would have known where to put it. Here's the completed puzzle:

Every once in a while I crave BLT pizza from Peppe's Pizza (a restaurant I thouroughly enjoyed in Norway). This afternoon we ate at Brewery City Pizza, and I was delighted to discover that their Cool Ranch Chicken was reminiscent of the delicious flavor. Plus the crust on their pizza is amazing. I could really go for some more...

Today was fun! After pizza we hung out at the apartment with a couple of new friends and played Nine Card, a version of Skip-Bo (I won twice, thrice if you count our warm up), and Munchkin, a card game that "captures the essence of the dungeon experience...with none of that roleplaying stuff." I have to say, I personally have nothing against Dungeons & Dragons...it's just not my cup of tea. This game was really fun, though! It took me a while to get the hang of it so I'm eager to give it another try sometime soon. It reminded Matt and me a bit of Quelf, though - especially with the random cards that were really funny.

All in all, we both feel like we're settling into Lacey very nicely. It was fun to connect with a couple of people from church this afternoon, and they live pretty close - that will be nice. I'm also really excited about everything in our apartment being set up, including the pictures on the walls and all our stuff having a home. It's crazy how much more relaxed I feel when there aren't boxes all over and I don't see things that need doing as I look around. Now Matt's Xbox just needs to return from it's journey to Texas and we can enjoy watching DVDs and playing Rock Band again!

Puzzles, Pillsbury and Pictures

I'm not a jigsaw puzzle person. Amazingly enough, I felt like doing a puzzle earlier tonight so I pulled the one I hadn't done yet out of the closet to put it together. It actually entertained me for about 2 hours...and then I couldn't handle it anymore. It didn't help that one of the side pieces is missing. Don't you hate that? It was a brand new puzzle out of the box and there was one side piece missing. Grrr. Anyway, 500 pieces is too much for me...I should stick to the puzzles with bigger and fewer pieces.

You know what I do find relaxing? Baking. After going to the gym 5 days in a row, I felt like I was able to justify baking cookies, so I mixed up the Pillsbury funfetti cookie mix I received for Christmas - which was done much more easily with my brand new hand mixer (also a Christmas present). This was especially nice because my arms were already tired from the gym, so I really didn't need the extra workout for my right arm. I thought we did a good job of spacing the cookie-eating out over a couple of days, too, so we didn't gorge ourselves too much. We should probably reinstate the "no baked goods unless we have someone to share it with" rule, but as we don't know many people in our new town, I have no idea when I would get to bake again...and it's just so fun! If only I had self-cleaning mixing bowls and baking pans, too...

I must say, now that our apartment is 95% complete (all we have left is hanging a couple pictures in the bedroom, although we did put some up in the living and dining room), I feel very accomplished. Within a week, we made more progress than we did in Bremerton (we never got around to hanging our pictures up). It's amazing how a little extra space and a better laid-out floor plan can help. It's kind of fun to move into a new place and reorganize everything again...although I'd like to hold off on moving again for at least a year or two if possible =)