Spent all of last week out with the flu. I'm back, and almost well again. A few notable things:
I've got a few knitting projects to post pictures of - I finished my two lengthy scarves that I was working on in the times when I could do something besides just sit in a fevered state in front of the TV.
I'm gong to be very bold and try to knit a sweater. I bought the yard when HCW had a sale at the beginning of the year. We'll see how this goes.
My new favorite show is Top Gear on BBC America. They are so cheeky and funny. I'd heard good things, but sort of blew it off as just a car show, but it's so much better than that. Two thumbs up.
And in the world of ridiculous things. There was recently a bull loose on the street of our admin here at hirestarter
Tuesday, January 15, 2008
Monday, January 7, 2008
Pressure cooker
As a gift, I received a lovely gift certificate from my gramma and aunty (and mom I think). Anyhoo, I elected to use it to get myself a pressure cooker. So far so good. I made some rice pilaf, and today I'll try it to cook some Anasazi beans. Beans and heavy grains seem to be where the pressure cookers shine.
I'll keep you up to date on how its going.
For reference, I got the Fagor Duo 6 quart pressure cooker. If I decide that I need to do some canning, I'll have to get the 10 quart.
I'll keep you up to date on how its going.
For reference, I got the Fagor Duo 6 quart pressure cooker. If I decide that I need to do some canning, I'll have to get the 10 quart.
Saturday, January 5, 2008
New Years Eve
Ok, I admit that New Years Eve has never really been my favorite holiday. It's too similar to Valentine's - too forced, and too much annoying purposefully jollity.
But this year, Monica and Andy invited us out with their friends to Ronnie's Real Food - a wonderful meal at a location in the middle of no damn where south Austin. They invited a few other friends and we had a fine time.
After dinner, we headed back to their house to ring in the new year. There was chocolate from Andy's office that also involved a rather fragrant cheese. Most people were grossed out by it. I didn't bother trying.
But this year, Monica and Andy invited us out with their friends to Ronnie's Real Food - a wonderful meal at a location in the middle of no damn where south Austin. They invited a few other friends and we had a fine time.
After dinner, we headed back to their house to ring in the new year. There was chocolate from Andy's office that also involved a rather fragrant cheese. Most people were grossed out by it. I didn't bother trying.
 |
| New Years Eve, 12/31/07 6:29 PM |
Pretty flowers
Roz gave us a set of the flowers from the temple from Aaron's Bar Mitzvah this morning.
 |
| Pretty Flowers 1/5/08 6:37 PM |
Fabulous things happening in our kitchen
Aaron, our neighbor across the street had his Bar Mitzvah today. We went to services, and he did a fine job. Dear Roz, his mom, has been going through what all mothers of children having Bar or Bat Mitzvahs do - stress and planning.
A few weeks back, Roz asked if she could borrow some fridge space for the few days leading up to the event to keep some desserts. I'm always happy to help with any dessert event. What I didn't know at the time is that Roz's uncles own their own bakery. And it was master baker, Fivey, who was responsible for all these desserts that were going to be going in my fridge. A few days back, Roz asked if Fivey could use our kitchen for assembly. Happy to have my island be used to its full capacity, I happily agreed. Little did I know what fabulous things would be made. Cheesecakes and tortes and a chocolate-dipped strawberry tree were constructed. As I walked in after work, it couldn't have been a prettier sight.
And the best part is that I got to keep all the extra chocolate, cream, garnishes, etc that weren't used for the sweets. Darn. I'll just HAVE to make something. Such a shame.
A few weeks back, Roz asked if she could borrow some fridge space for the few days leading up to the event to keep some desserts. I'm always happy to help with any dessert event. What I didn't know at the time is that Roz's uncles own their own bakery. And it was master baker, Fivey, who was responsible for all these desserts that were going to be going in my fridge. A few days back, Roz asked if Fivey could use our kitchen for assembly. Happy to have my island be used to its full capacity, I happily agreed. Little did I know what fabulous things would be made. Cheesecakes and tortes and a chocolate-dipped strawberry tree were constructed. As I walked in after work, it couldn't have been a prettier sight.
And the best part is that I got to keep all the extra chocolate, cream, garnishes, etc that weren't used for the sweets. Darn. I'll just HAVE to make something. Such a shame.
 |
| Pastries in our kitchen 6:19 PM |
Friday, January 4, 2008
Christmas Wrap-Up
As I mentioned before, this was the first year we spent in Austin for Christmas. We've both traveled somewhere for the holidays for each of the 13 and 9 years that we've been in Austin. Since we were tired of the traveling, we pawned it off on others. Here was the schedule:
December 15 (really 16) Rachel arrives after a many hour delay in Chicago. Delays in Chicago. We were *SO* surprised. She sleeps until 1:30, and repeats this pattern for many days in a row - basically until her sister arrived and took up (apparently more than) half of the bedroom. She watches movies and doesn't do a whole lot, and also doesn't get sick with the plague that followed me around most winter breaks
December 20, Rebecca, Gramma Peggy and Aunty Louise show up. It's Gramma and Aunt's first visit to Texas. The house crowds up immediately. I get to show off our great knitting shop - Hill Country Weavers, and my first house, and the beautiful hills around Austin.
December 23, Sandy, Matt and Emily arrive without their luggage. Seriously - none of their luggage. I mean usually one of two bags will arrive, but they were missing all 3. Emily had the plague that her sister avoided. She'd just finished up a long Nutcracker season with her ballet company and with the lack of sleep managed to get strep throat in the middle of it. We quickly settled Matt and Sandy into "sloth in austin" - where activities are all of your own interest, and nothing is forced on you.
December 24, Traditional Behrens family Christmas eve party. We were joined by Heather N, Bryan M, Peter and Laura D with the twins Ryan and Kira. Lots of food, the chocolate fountain and this funny video on the big screen.
Here are some photos
December 25, Traditional Wilbur Christmas Day with presents and nice sit down dinner.
December 26, Rebecca Peggy and Louse depart
December 27, The remainder of us tour UT with Heather N so Emily can get a sense of what you might see on a college tour. Sadly the univeristy was closed this week, so we couldn't do a "proper" tour, but Heather was very gracious to help us out, and give us a sense of what it's like to be there as an undergrad. I was originally going to give the tour, but realized I only know anything about 2 buildings - The sanchez building, where my classes were all held, and the PCL - graduate library.
Afterwards we headed to ToyJoy and DhabaJoy for some OatsCream. As expected, the Kahn family found it..."interesting" and "different"
December 28, Everyone else departs, and we are left on our own. Boo.
December 15 (really 16) Rachel arrives after a many hour delay in Chicago. Delays in Chicago. We were *SO* surprised. She sleeps until 1:30, and repeats this pattern for many days in a row - basically until her sister arrived and took up (apparently more than) half of the bedroom. She watches movies and doesn't do a whole lot, and also doesn't get sick with the plague that followed me around most winter breaks
December 20, Rebecca, Gramma Peggy and Aunty Louise show up. It's Gramma and Aunt's first visit to Texas. The house crowds up immediately. I get to show off our great knitting shop - Hill Country Weavers, and my first house, and the beautiful hills around Austin.
December 23, Sandy, Matt and Emily arrive without their luggage. Seriously - none of their luggage. I mean usually one of two bags will arrive, but they were missing all 3. Emily had the plague that her sister avoided. She'd just finished up a long Nutcracker season with her ballet company and with the lack of sleep managed to get strep throat in the middle of it. We quickly settled Matt and Sandy into "sloth in austin" - where activities are all of your own interest, and nothing is forced on you.
December 24, Traditional Behrens family Christmas eve party. We were joined by Heather N, Bryan M, Peter and Laura D with the twins Ryan and Kira. Lots of food, the chocolate fountain and this funny video on the big screen.
Here are some photos
 |
| Christmas Even 12/24/07 5:33 PM |
December 25, Traditional Wilbur Christmas Day with presents and nice sit down dinner.
 |
| Christmas Day in Austin 12/25/07 5:40 PM |
December 26, Rebecca Peggy and Louse depart
December 27, The remainder of us tour UT with Heather N so Emily can get a sense of what you might see on a college tour. Sadly the univeristy was closed this week, so we couldn't do a "proper" tour, but Heather was very gracious to help us out, and give us a sense of what it's like to be there as an undergrad. I was originally going to give the tour, but realized I only know anything about 2 buildings - The sanchez building, where my classes were all held, and the PCL - graduate library.
Afterwards we headed to ToyJoy and DhabaJoy for some OatsCream. As expected, the Kahn family found it..."interesting" and "different"
 |
| Dhaba Joy 12/27/07 5:52 PM |
December 28, Everyone else departs, and we are left on our own. Boo.
Back to work
Tom started his new job at Vast this week. (www.vast.com) He's going to be traveling to Serbia at the end of the month.
I'm back at work, and no one else is showing up. Weird
I'm back at work, and no one else is showing up. Weird
Tuesday, December 25, 2007
Trail of lights - 2007
Ok, I'd only gone through the Trail of lights when I did the 5K run a few years back. Me, Tom, Rachel and Rebecca went over to do the full experience this year. Being the last night, the hoards were out in full force. The trees are a sight to behold. It's fun to get swept along with the sea of people and also to have mouthfuls of kettle corn.
So with this set of pictures, you can both see some of the sights in the trail of lights, but also some interesting attempts at photographing lights in the dark, and some weird long exposure 'accidents' that turned out pretty well
So with this set of pictures, you can both see some of the sights in the trail of lights, but also some interesting attempts at photographing lights in the dark, and some weird long exposure 'accidents' that turned out pretty well
 |
| Trail of Lights 12/25/07 8:40 PM |
Tasty Dosai
We took Rachel to introduce her to the Dosai - the most perfect Indian food (at least in my world). It's not subtle in it's size
 |
| Dosai 12/25/07 8:35 PM |
Shiny new garage floor
To cover the nasty 40 year old concrete, we got one of those shiny epoxy coatings. It's beautiful. I might become neurotic about keeping the house clean
 |
| New Garage Floor 12/25/07 8:32 PM |
Mom get's a camera
Stacy and Kim, Gramma, Aunty and Tom and I got Rebecca a camera. She was excited
 |
| Mom Gets a Camera 12/25/07 7:53 PM |
Gingerbread Houses
I've never made gingerbread houses before. I thought it would be fun. So I invited a few friends over and we went ahead and made some houses. Baked from scratch, and decorated with all sorts of sugary goodness
We had one roof failure (bad icing consistency), and that caused the house to turn into a church rather than a cabin. Monica used the few bits of gingerbread scraps to make a modern house (it was modeled on a famous house, but I can't really remember the name of it)
We had one roof failure (bad icing consistency), and that caused the house to turn into a church rather than a cabin. Monica used the few bits of gingerbread scraps to make a modern house (it was modeled on a famous house, but I can't really remember the name of it)
 |
| Gingerbrea |
Tuesday, December 18, 2007
Almost done!
No pictures just yet, but the house is getting very close to done. It's been beautiful and sunny the last two days, so the spraying is finished, and they are going methodically around the house touching up the details. The front door might be purple by the end of the day. But I'm not entirely sure.
Monday, December 17, 2007
Rachel is here
And she's hanging out doing very little as any self-respecting college freshman should.
Sunday, December 16, 2007
House, continued
Tom is sad. It keeps raining. However, we had one brief day of respite and the painters managed to get most of the eaves and trims painted, and part of the house painted. Sadly, they were painting the house basically in the dark, so there's a fair bit of weird overspray.
On Friday, it rained again, so the guys were back inside working on the garage. It is now a lovely shade of blue, and with everything, and I do mean *everything* else in there covered in blue as well. Painting a garage with sprayers seems silly - I mean, sure it goes fast, but you have to keep the door shut, so you basically gas yourself while doing so. The house stunk for the next day, and in the process of trying to get the door open the next day, we munged up the bottoms of 2 pairs of shoes by stepping in still wet paint.
And now, 8 days later, we are still living inside the quarantine zone. Plastic covering the windows. As I said before, it makes Tom sad. Here is also some of the crap that got taken off the house that needs to go back up as well as newly purchased items to replace those that had disintegrated in the years they've been used.
 |
| House Paint, Continued 12/16/07 11:14 AM |
On Friday, it rained again, so the guys were back inside working on the garage. It is now a lovely shade of blue, and with everything, and I do mean *everything* else in there covered in blue as well. Painting a garage with sprayers seems silly - I mean, sure it goes fast, but you have to keep the door shut, so you basically gas yourself while doing so. The house stunk for the next day, and in the process of trying to get the door open the next day, we munged up the bottoms of 2 pairs of shoes by stepping in still wet paint.
And now, 8 days later, we are still living inside the quarantine zone. Plastic covering the windows. As I said before, it makes Tom sad. Here is also some of the crap that got taken off the house that needs to go back up as well as newly purchased items to replace those that had disintegrated in the years they've been used.
 |
| Garage Paint 12/16/07 11:21 AM |
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)