Something I forgot to mention in my last post...
One of the things my mom got D and I for Christmas was a food smoker. I can't remember the brand off the top of my head, but it's very cool.
Last night D and I used it for the first time and made Salmon steaks in it. We added a little bit of salt, pepper, and dill weed and it only took about 15 minutes to cook. It was oh so tasty...the best fish I've ever had I dare say. We made brown rice and a vegetable medley with sugar snap peas, red pepper, and potatoes as go withs.
So...yeah...thanks mom! :-)
Thursday, May 29, 2008
New things
Well, it's been over a month since I last posted, but not too many things have been going on. The main thing has been that D and I have gotten our downstairs "kitchen" useable.
After getting all of his dad's stuff out of there we brought down our microwave, toaster oven, and other odds and ends. We cleaned out the dresser we've been storing down there, put contact paper down and that's now our dishes/dry goods "cabinet" and it works pretty dang well. After that, D got our new sink hooked up in the bathroom down there. It's very big and very deep...more like a sink you'd find in a workshop or something, but it's awesome and we've been doing a fairly good job of keeping it dish free.
After all that it was time to get the oven hooked up. D's dad helped A LOT. What was supposed to be a 2 hour job, though, turned into a 7 hour job. We just kept hitting roadblock after roadblock. But, 7 hours and 3 trips to Lowe's later, we got it in (and had baked potatoes that night). And the very next day made homemade pizza (on a premade crust).
So, after doing all of that, D and I realized that we were fast running out of freezer space for meat and leftovers and such and decided that, instead of setting up office space down there, we moved the desk out that we'd been using and moved our old deep freeze in. Now we've got about 10+ pounds of meat in it, frozen vegetables, a frozen pizza, extra bread, etc. etc.
I guess the next step is to get the leak fixed in our upstairs shower.
Change of topic:
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
D has decided to get rid of his land surveying business. The housing market is steadily dropping off and there just isn't enough work to be had for one person trying to build a business. So he's been looking at getting a full-time job somewhere. Nothing is for sure yet, but he's been looking on Monster.com and so far has found about 9 different jobs (using his surveying license in some form or other) in Pennsylvania, Florida, Georgia, New Jersey, Las Vegas, and Colorado. So the ways it's looking, if that's the route he decides to go, it'll involve us moving.
I'm looking to find a new job as well in the meantime. I'm just so over Lowe's and there's no chance of me getting full-time work there and I'm needing the hours and benefits. It would've been nice since, y'know, I already work there. But it's not happening.
Um...what else...oh, we're going camping tomorrow! Yay!! We were gonna go last weekend, but being Memorial weekend we would've likely had to drive all the way into NC to find a spot and D's truck is still acting up. But, surprise surprise, I was given a morning shift tomorrow and Saturday and Sunday off so he's gonna try and get the truck all loaded and ready while I'm at work and then we'll grab a quick bite for lunch and we're off. It's supposed to be around 80 degrees tomorrow so I see some river swimming in the plans.
That reminds me, I need to finish washing dishes and getting the laundry ready to pack. And I'm already starting to feel like a new mom leaving the baby with a sitter for the first time. I tried to convince D to let us take the Calli kitten with and get a harness for her, but she's still too young and scared of the outdoors. But, his sister-in-law has four cats so she's gonna feed Calli while we're gone.
That's all for now.
Ciao
After getting all of his dad's stuff out of there we brought down our microwave, toaster oven, and other odds and ends. We cleaned out the dresser we've been storing down there, put contact paper down and that's now our dishes/dry goods "cabinet" and it works pretty dang well. After that, D got our new sink hooked up in the bathroom down there. It's very big and very deep...more like a sink you'd find in a workshop or something, but it's awesome and we've been doing a fairly good job of keeping it dish free.
After all that it was time to get the oven hooked up. D's dad helped A LOT. What was supposed to be a 2 hour job, though, turned into a 7 hour job. We just kept hitting roadblock after roadblock. But, 7 hours and 3 trips to Lowe's later, we got it in (and had baked potatoes that night). And the very next day made homemade pizza (on a premade crust).
So, after doing all of that, D and I realized that we were fast running out of freezer space for meat and leftovers and such and decided that, instead of setting up office space down there, we moved the desk out that we'd been using and moved our old deep freeze in. Now we've got about 10+ pounds of meat in it, frozen vegetables, a frozen pizza, extra bread, etc. etc.
I guess the next step is to get the leak fixed in our upstairs shower.
Change of topic:
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
D has decided to get rid of his land surveying business. The housing market is steadily dropping off and there just isn't enough work to be had for one person trying to build a business. So he's been looking at getting a full-time job somewhere. Nothing is for sure yet, but he's been looking on Monster.com and so far has found about 9 different jobs (using his surveying license in some form or other) in Pennsylvania, Florida, Georgia, New Jersey, Las Vegas, and Colorado. So the ways it's looking, if that's the route he decides to go, it'll involve us moving.
I'm looking to find a new job as well in the meantime. I'm just so over Lowe's and there's no chance of me getting full-time work there and I'm needing the hours and benefits. It would've been nice since, y'know, I already work there. But it's not happening.
Um...what else...oh, we're going camping tomorrow! Yay!! We were gonna go last weekend, but being Memorial weekend we would've likely had to drive all the way into NC to find a spot and D's truck is still acting up. But, surprise surprise, I was given a morning shift tomorrow and Saturday and Sunday off so he's gonna try and get the truck all loaded and ready while I'm at work and then we'll grab a quick bite for lunch and we're off. It's supposed to be around 80 degrees tomorrow so I see some river swimming in the plans.
That reminds me, I need to finish washing dishes and getting the laundry ready to pack. And I'm already starting to feel like a new mom leaving the baby with a sitter for the first time. I tried to convince D to let us take the Calli kitten with and get a harness for her, but she's still too young and scared of the outdoors. But, his sister-in-law has four cats so she's gonna feed Calli while we're gone.
That's all for now.
Ciao
Friday, April 11, 2008
Update
Just an icebreaker (heh, irony just realized) to this post... it's been at least 65 degrees here for the past two weeks. :-)
Anyway, about a week or so after my family visit, D's and my refridgerator went out. Thankfully we hadn't just made a big shopping trip, but the food we did lose still hurt. Interestingly enough, as we were parked outside the bank, ready to withdraw money for a new fridge, D got a call from his dad saying that D's aunt had a co-worker with an old fridge they were giving away. They delivered it from over an hour away. Completely incredible considering we were about to spend $500+ dollars on one.
Other than that, things have been pretty low-key around here. Work has been pretty steady for D and I've got a small increase in my hours at Lowe's. I'm still not liking it there very much, but there's not much else I can do right now. But, all in all, it's cool being able to work with enough time to help D out with the stuff he has to do.
Oh, one of the boxes of my stuff that my mom brought down turned out to be my Audiovox 5-disc changer. We've been without a stereo in the room for almost a year when D's surround sound went out. We borrowed a couple speakers from one of his brothers and have it working perfectly now. It'll be nice not having to have the tv on to listen to a cd now (have been using the dvd player when desperate).
Um...what else...another thing my mom brought down was a GT Xpress 101. I thought it was just a sandwich maker like what I grew up having...y'know, the square spaces just big enough for a full slice of bread sandwich and then it crimps the bread and makes it into a pocket of sorts. This one...not like that, but WAY cooler. We haven't done a ton of things in it so far and you can only do a half sandwich at a time if two people are eating but it's so incredible. The first couple times we used it we made roast beef sandwiches with onion, green pepper, and swiss cheese (yummy!). Then last night we made what I guess could be called chicken quesadillas. We'd had chicken left-over grilled chicken so we sliced that up, put onions on it, and cheese (D had swiss and I used american cheese). The second ones had bacon added and were oh so delicious.
I'm really wanting to try omelets in there, but we have yet to make another trip to the store for ham and shredded cheese. Oh the possibilities of this wonderful invention. *grins*
Anyway, about a week or so after my family visit, D's and my refridgerator went out. Thankfully we hadn't just made a big shopping trip, but the food we did lose still hurt. Interestingly enough, as we were parked outside the bank, ready to withdraw money for a new fridge, D got a call from his dad saying that D's aunt had a co-worker with an old fridge they were giving away. They delivered it from over an hour away. Completely incredible considering we were about to spend $500+ dollars on one.
Other than that, things have been pretty low-key around here. Work has been pretty steady for D and I've got a small increase in my hours at Lowe's. I'm still not liking it there very much, but there's not much else I can do right now. But, all in all, it's cool being able to work with enough time to help D out with the stuff he has to do.
Oh, one of the boxes of my stuff that my mom brought down turned out to be my Audiovox 5-disc changer. We've been without a stereo in the room for almost a year when D's surround sound went out. We borrowed a couple speakers from one of his brothers and have it working perfectly now. It'll be nice not having to have the tv on to listen to a cd now (have been using the dvd player when desperate).
Um...what else...another thing my mom brought down was a GT Xpress 101. I thought it was just a sandwich maker like what I grew up having...y'know, the square spaces just big enough for a full slice of bread sandwich and then it crimps the bread and makes it into a pocket of sorts. This one...not like that, but WAY cooler. We haven't done a ton of things in it so far and you can only do a half sandwich at a time if two people are eating but it's so incredible. The first couple times we used it we made roast beef sandwiches with onion, green pepper, and swiss cheese (yummy!). Then last night we made what I guess could be called chicken quesadillas. We'd had chicken left-over grilled chicken so we sliced that up, put onions on it, and cheese (D had swiss and I used american cheese). The second ones had bacon added and were oh so delicious.
I'm really wanting to try omelets in there, but we have yet to make another trip to the store for ham and shredded cheese. Oh the possibilities of this wonderful invention. *grins*
Thursday, April 03, 2008
Pictures on flickr
I finally posted the pictures from our Cade's Cove trip while the fam was here. It's a scenic route kinda drive in a part of the Smoky Mt. National Park. So...enjoy. Here's the link again if you weren't able to find it.
http://www.flickr.com/photos/22373699@N05/
http://www.flickr.com/photos/22373699@N05/
Forgot to mention...
I got a new phone and local number while my fam was here. So...if by some stretch of the imagination someone wanted to call me at my old number, they'd reach my sister...not me.
I'm all localfied now. :-D
I'm all localfied now. :-D
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