Matt's B-day Celebration

On Saturday night we met up with our friends for dinner and drinks to celebrate Matt's B-day. We went to Kenichi for dinner. Jim and I are not totally adventurous yet when it comes to sushi, no real raw fish. We made a slight exception to that this night. Our sushi had blackend tuna in it, which really meant that one side of the fish was seared with cajun type spices. The sushi role also had poblano pepper, cucumber and avocado in it. We both really liked it. I'm looking forward to building on this experience. My main dish was seared scallops with some type of sauteed spicy eggplant... YUMMY! Jim ordered the teriyaki chicken with fried rice, which was very good also!

After dinner we headed to a couple of bars just down the block. We met up with some friends that couldn't make it to dinner. We all had a pretty good time with each other!!!

Vanessa, Matt (b-day boy), Lindsey and Chris

Yup... another self portrait

Yummy sushi... I was really happy that I liked it because if I didn't then I had a feeling that my mouth would have rejected the sushi and who knows what would have happened after that :)

Scallops and eggplant... wonderful!

I think I was one of the shortest people at the party... me, Lindsey and Whitney

Ahhh... Little Jimmy. Jim was a dancing fool at one of the bars. He NEVER dances, but he must have put on his dancing shoes that night. Below, he is doing the Thriller dance from Micheal Jackson's video.
That is one lucky poll.... Lindsey and Vanessa are abusing that poll and the pole likes it.
Poor Charlie.... he had surgery to repair his ACL and MCL 3 weeks ago. He is on crutches for another 2 weeks. His brother Mike tore his ACL and had surgery on the same day with the same doctor. Luckily Mike only partially tore his ACL so his recovery has been a little quicker than Charlie.
Me, V, and Jenny
Mike, Chris, Nick and Jim
me, Lindsey (who is ducking down to my level), Whitney and V
Looks like Jimmy isn't the only dancing fool!
The cool guys

Silly twins

Le Garage Sale

The garage sale was a slight success. I didn't really expect much, but we had a boost of people because the neighbor across the street also had a garage sale. The worst part of the garage sale was lugging everything out of the garage and searching through boxes for stuff to sell. For the first hour we would sell something, then walk back into the garage, root around a box and put more stuff out. We had some hagglers, but nothing to terrible. It sort of pissed me off a couple of times because people would just automatically say, "I'll give you $$$ for that thing", and then I would counter with "no". :o)

It has been awhile since I have posted a "feet photo"

I laughed when I pulled this shirt out of a box. Smitty's is (was) a grocery store in Arizona. I haven't thought about Smitty's in awhile.

Wish us luck

Tomorrow morning at an ungodly hour we are going to have a garage sale at my Dad's house. I have been putting this off because I really didn't feel like dealing with all of it. But with football season looming, I knew I had to do it now. Otherwise I might have not had as much help from the hubby. I hate haggling with people about prices, cause you know they are out there and want to get a deal. I also feel a little weird selling my dad's stuff. He was kind of a hoarder, so I have quite a bit of stuff to go through. :)

I went over to my dad's today to get stuff ready and to put up signs. I felt a little like white trash putting up garage sale signs on stop signs with packing tape :) Then I had some moron honk his horn and whistle at me. I say moron because I was pretty bad looking.... hair pulled back in a bun, crappy torn UT shirt and baggy shorts that had the following in them: large black marker, keys, cell phone, pocket knife, and packing tape. All which made my thighs look HUGE! :)

Wish us luck tomorrow! :)

Zucchini Fritters Recipe


These were very very very tasty. They had a nice crunch on the outside and kind of creamy in the middle. I can't wait to make these again! For those of you with kids, this might be a good way to slip in some veggies. :)




Ingredients



1 lb of zucchini (about 2 medium sized), coarsely grated


Kosher salt


Ground black pepper


1 large egg


1/2 red onion, finely chopped


1/2 cup all-purpose flour


1/2 cup canola oil or olive oil


Sour cream, yogurt or ranch



Method
1 Salt the zucchini with about 1 teaspoon of salt. Try to remove the excess moisture from the zucchini by either squeezing the liquid out with a potato ricer, or by squeezing with paper towels. I don't have a potato ricer, so I just used paper towels.





2 Whisk egg in a large bowl; add the zucchini, flour, onion, and 1/4 teaspoon of pepper. Mix to combine well.



3 Heat oil in a large skillet over medium heat. Cook fritters in two batches. Drop six mounds of batter (2 Tbsp each) into the skillet. Flatten slightly. Cook, turning once, until browned, 4-6 minutes on each side. Transfer to a paper towel-lined plate. Sprinkle with salt. Repeat with remaining batter.



Serve immediately, with sour cream, yogurt or ranch.

Random Photos

Great Burgers!!

decorated bird bath in our backyard

Granite counter tops in the Georgetown house. Great color and movement.

This picture cracks me up because it looks like Nick is having a really hard time opening up the wine :)

We went bowling with some friends last weekend. If you notice in the picture, I got two strikes in a row! BUUUUUT.... I actually got another one during my next turn! The girls beat the boys in both games that we played :)

I took this with my point and shoot camera. I don't think the camera really captured how pretty it was that morning.

Gorgeous house for sale

A couple of friends of ours built this house (well.. their idea and design, and they hired people to build it) in Georgetown. It has a comfortable design, high end granite counter tops in kitchen and bathroom, backyard that backs up to nature, wonderful master bathroom, walk in closets, and a kitchen that opens up to the living room. If we could, Jim and I would buy this house and trade it with our house. :) There is no way I would move that far away from my job (it is probably a 35-40 min drive to the middle of Austin). So if anybody wants a house in Georgetown, let me know.

I love the faucet by the oven. The faucet is used to fill up large pots of water so you don't have to carry it from the sink to the stove. Jim says we can't do it in our kitchen... BOOOO!

Nick doesn't come with the house... he is just testing out the shower (which is missing the glass around it right now)

Smooshed

I finally picked up my melted wine bottle. It is pretty neat but in all honesty, not sure what I am going to do with it. I thought it would make a cool serving plate for cheese, but it isn't that big and isn't really flat. It was a good experience, but I think I'll just recycle my wine bottle next time :)

I love the Olympics!!! I am amazed at the athletic ability of each person on the TV screen. Swimming and gymnastics are my two favorite events to watch. I really hope the women's and men's USA gymnastic teams can pull out some gold medals, but the Chinese look really freakin good. And of course while I am watching the women gymnasts, Jim giggles every time one of the girls name is announced.... Nastia Liukin. So, the way that Jim pronounces it is..... "Nasty lookin". She is a pretty girl and very talented, but has a name that some people will make fun of.


Micheal Phillips is a maniac. Total swimming god and extremely talented. His mother signed him up for swimming because he had a lot of energy as a kid and she thought swimming would be a good outlet for his energy. Good for her to keep him away from video games and TV (especially as a single mother of 3!!). I really hope he breaks a ton of records and winds plenty of medals.

I am also inspired by Dara Torres. Have you seen her body? OH. MY. GOD. She is ripped. I know that she basically trains 29 hours a day but still. Her body rocks. She was saying in an interview that she has plenty of people saying that she has taken performance enhancement drugs. Because of those people she does more drug tests than any other athlete, per her request. She has also allowed the Olympic labs to keep her blood to test as they wish. She had great times in her split for the 4 x 100 freestyle event (I swam this back in high school) and her other event is later this week (I believe). I'll be cheering from my couch for all of those buff USA athletes!!

I am watching plenty of the Olympics and I am stoked that Direct TV has two extra channels showing the Olympics. Those extra channels are showing some of the less popular events like weight lifting (you should have seen some of the women... wow,, very manly looking), equestrian riding, and boxing.

Refreshing salad

I have been wanting to make a creamy cucumber salad for some time. I decided this weekend was the weekend to try it out. Plus I went to Central Market and found some fresh dill and it smelled fantastic. I looked a couple of recipes and took a little of each to make this recipe. The end result was tasty. Jim isn't a huge fan so next time i won't make as much :)

Cucumber Salad

1 large cucumbers, peeled and cubed
1/2 cup sour cream
1/2 cup plain yogurt
1 garlic clove diced
1/4 cup fresh dill
dash of salt
dash of pepper
about 1/2 cup of feta cheese... more or less depending on your tastes

Mix everything together, refrigerate for a couple of hours and enjoy!!

Great Notecards

My very talented friend, Lisha, gave me a great gift of personalized note cards (see above). She runs her own company and sells note cards, thank you cards, gift tags for adults and children. Go check out her website.... www.swaknotes.com. Go on.... shoo.... check out the site, what are you waiting for???? :)

Damn you Bravo

I already have enough TV to watch but now that I have found all of the neat-o shows on Bravo I am going to have to find more time to watch TV. Top Chef, Real Housewives of Orange County, Work Out,Flipping Out, Sheer Genius, and Project Runway have all turned me into a sloth in front of the TV. Damn you reality TV!!! I mean come on.... how on earth have I been sucked in by all of those damn TV shows?!?!!? At least they are all on during different times of the year. Flipping Out was the last show that I found. I find the main guy Jeff is totally freakin mental but I can't stop watching. I think it is mostly because it is hilarious and his assistant is a saint for dealing with him on a daily basis. Now, if I had to deal with a guy like that every day I would not find it hilarious. He flips houses and there hasn't been a house that I wasn't in awe of... very beautiful and modern. If I could afford him, I would have him re-do our house!

This is the first season that I have watched Project Runway, yes I know I am behind the times. But I find it very interesting and amazing at the various styles they come up with on the show. I don't really have a favorite because it changes each week.

I really should finish cleaning up the house... but I'm on my ass watching Sheer Genius playing on the internet. :o)

Our Pottery is back!!


Last weekend, Lisha, Shay and I painted pottery together and this weekend I picked up my masterpiece! Shay picked up her and Lisha's plates a couple of days ago. They turned out so cool! They used a special paint that changed colors when it is "cooked". All of the colors came out way more colorful than I was expecting. I really liked my mug but I noticed some brush strokes that I wished that I could fix :o) Now I will just have to paint ceramics again... I have so many more idea's on what I can paint :)


I have one minor complaint about the ceramic place.... My wine "plate" was not done. In fact when I went to the back to find my mug, I saw my wine bottle just sitting there. They hadn't cooked it and formed it into a plate. Damn them. I'll have to go back next weekend to pick it up (it is about a 20 min drive from my house). I'll call this time to make sure it is done because I certainly don't want to have to drive all the way to find out it isn't done. Hopefully they will get it done!!

Shay and Lisha's pretty plates

Here is a picture of Shay and her plate before it was "cooked" (Her plate is the plate on the left above)


My cup


A little of the color insanity inside my cup

Mug before it was "cooked"