Latest pictures of the kids

I love this picture of Chewie and Abby,,, it shows the difference in their heights. Normally if they are near each other they are running, biting, or rolling around. And that makes it really hard to get good pictures of the two

She is constantly looking up at Chewie... like she is making sure that her big brother is still around. Of course, when she isn't looking at him, she is hanging off of his neck

Cucumber KimChi

I'm not really sure where I got the idea to make cucumber kimchi, but I am so glad I made it. When we were in San Diego last year, we ate some of the best sushi that we have ever had. One of the rolls that we had was called the kitchen sink roll because it had everything in it. On top of that roll was some type of cucumber salad. I loved that salad and wish I had asked what was in it but there was a bit of a language barrier with our waitress. Any way, the other day I ate at Chilantro taco cart ( love those tacos!!) and you have an option to add traditional kimchi(usually made with cabbage instead of the cucumber) to the tacos and to their french fries. And it came to me that I need to try making Cucumber kimchi. So I searched the internet and found the recipe at the link below....

http://www.drbenkim.com/how-to-make-cucumber-kim-chi.htm

There were a few recipes that I found, but I ultimately decided on this one. I went to a Korean grocery store near the house (had no idea we had one this close) and picked up the red pepper flakes, which is really the base of the kimchi. I really liked the outcome, but I know it needs some tweaking. We used the kimchi on a grilled chicken taco with naan and it was fantastic. I loved the cool yet spicy crunch that it gave to the taco. I'll be searching for more things to use the kimchi and the red pepper flakes on. I now own a fairly large bag of the spice.

Start with about 15 to 20 small cucumbers, the kind that are used to make dill pickles. If you can't find small cucumbers, you can use about the equivalent amount of large cucumbers.
Give the cucumbers a good rinse, then chop them into bite-size pieces. Put them in a large bowl, add about two flat tablespoons of sea salt, and toss well.

Allow salted pickles to sit overnight at room temperature, or at least for a couple of hours. The salt helps draw moisture out of the cucumbers, which creates a natural brine.
Now add 1/2 to 1 full teaspoon of minced raw garlic

Wash and chop up three green onions - not three bunches, but three individual ribs.

For a little extra sweetness, chop up 1/4 of a small to medium yellow onion.

Now the part that makes any kim chi a real, authentic kim chi: add two flat tablespoons of fine red chili flakes.

Koreans call it ko choo kah rhoo, which literally means ground hot peppers.
If at all possible, please get some of this stuff from a local Korean grocery store so that you can be sure that you have the right kind for making kim chi. You can add ko choo kah rhoo to any number of dishes, of course, like miso soup and seasoned green beans. Koreans add ko choo kah rhoo to just about everything.

Now add a teaspoon of vinegar.

Add a Tablespoon of honey

Mix everything very well.

Now pack your cucumber kim chi away into glass bottles, and don't forget to add a bit of brine to each one - just a couple of tablespoons of brine per bottle will do.

All that's left to do at this point is to leave your bottles of cucumber kim chi out in room temperature for 24 to 48 hours to give it a chance to ferment. After 24 to 48 hours, transfer the bottles to your refrigerator. Well, shit. I totally didn't do this step.... guess I didn't look at the entire article. Now I am going to have to go back and redo this with ALL of the steps. Good thing this is very easy to do, so I'll be making batch #2 this weekend

Chicken tacos with naan, topped with the cucumber kimchi

Chewie and Abby

We are finally back in to a normal dog routine. No going to the vet once a week, no keeping Abby on a leash at all times, no stressing about Abby jumping up and down while she was supposed to be "immobile".... now we just worry about normal stuff like

"quit eating my shoe"

"Quit biting your brother"

"why are you so damn quiet in the other room".

You know, normal puppy stuff. i still spent a decent amount of time outside with the dogs and unfortunately that means that I have a ton of mosquito bites. I'm surprised I don't have the West Nile Virus yet. I slather on the pest deterrent and use the mosquito candles but there is not a cure all to get rid of all of them. Regardless of the bugs I still have a fun time outside with the kids, and especially now since Abby can run around like normal. She LOVES to run around, as you'll see in the photos below.

Abby on high alert

It is hard to get a picture with Chewie and Abby next to each other (normally they are running and playing at full speed), but you can see here that Abby is getting taller! She has almost doubled in weight since we got her.

VARRRRRRRROOOOOOMMMMMMM!


Chewie looks like he is just walking, but based on the ear straight up he was jogging away... perhaps to get away from the little black terror known as his little sister?

"you can't get away" says the little black terror :)
Chewie is always on patrol. Lately the squirrels have been feasting on the acorns, which means we have to watch out on the ground, or we could get pelted with the left over acorn bits.

Abby found this teddy bear in the spare room. A long time ago I bought Jim some balloons for his birthday and had them sent to his office. This little teddy bear came with the balloons. I had forgotten about the teddy bear until Abby began to play with him. So far the bear has really held up to her attacks... sure he has lost both eyes (both of which I safely got and threw away) and his ears are a little mangled but he is lasting a lot longer than I expected.

She likes to use the teddy bear as a pillow. SOOO damn cute!

But her favorite pillow is Chewie.

Night out with the ladies at Gloria's

Kelli moved away right after she married George so we only get to see her once or twice a year! George was going to law school in Oklahoma City, so they lived there for a few years and now they are in Dallas. Although George has finished law school, now he is studying for the bar. Kelli said that he is constantly studying to make sure he passes on the first try (even though they know that is a long stretch). Kelli recently found out she is pregnant with twins and due in December. They are very excited although a little scared to raise two at the same time. They both come from large families so they have a lot of help. We had a really nice evening catching up. On Saturday nights Gloria's turns into a salsa bar... they move the tables and it turns into one big dance floor. The manager came over and tried to convince us to stay until 11pm, but it was only 9pm and we had already been there since 6:30 :) One day we'll have to check it out. I believe they charge a cover after a certain time on Saturdays.

Poor Kelli was looking on as the rest of us enjoyed our adult beverages. The Sangria at Gloria's was good but a little too sweet. And if I'm saying it's to sweet, then you know it's WAY to sweet. The bitty chunks of fruit was a nice change to the larger pieces you normally get in Sangria.

The ladies at dinner

Supawn is enjoying her Apple-tini. I had a swig and it was very Appley. Not sure I could finish one of those

I ordered the shredded chicken tostada's. I think this might have been the first time I have ever ordered them in a restaurant. They were hard to cut through, but eventually I just ate the chicken and greens without the tostada shell. It was good, not great. They certainly give you a lot of food, but at $11.99 I was hoping for a little better food.

The chips were good and the salsa had a little bit of a garlic bite to it, which I really like. They also serve some type of bean dip with the chips which was a nice surprise. I normally don't like beans (due to texture), but mixed with the salsa I liked the bean dip.
Ashley and I

Amanda and Kelli

4th of July Weekend

During 4th of July weekend, we were lucky to get a couple of spots on our friends boat. We were a little worried about the rain because it stormed quite a bit over the days leading up to to 4th of July weekend. This time around boating consisted of surfing, rope swing, and lounging about in the cove. It turned out to be such a pretty day and we had a great time with our friends!

The Rope Swing: This is Matt flying through the air after letting go on the rope swing. I really wanted to go but we had just finished eating at Thundercloud and I didn't want to hurl while flying through the air :)

Mike flying off of the rope

Jim and I are new to the surfing world. Basically you are on a surf board and you use the rope to get up on the water. After you are up, you are supposed to be able to find the "sweet spot" , let go of the rope, and then ride the wake. We are not there yet... one day


I'm still hanging onto the rope


Chris C trying out surfing for the first time. Whitney (wife) said that he used to be a skateboard punk as a kid and he goes surfing anytime they are near an ocean. He was able to get up right away

Mike... aka "Mr. Model"

Jenn is a total rockstar at surfing.

Jenn and I

Matt, Charlie, Julie and Chris M. Julie isn't a happy camper here.... Chris (guy sitting in front of her) had just lost his one of a kind (they designed it) wedding ring while playing catch in the cove.

Jim and Charlie

Matt surfing near the 360 bridge

Vannessa and I

Jenn, Jim and Vanessa enjoying out day out on the lake

Charlie the ham surfing behind the boat

The right way to surf behind a boat... no rope

Jimmy and I

Mike surfing

I think Matt is just giving the guys a target to hit with the football, but it looks like he is entertaining us with a little ballet

Vannessa

Jenn, Vannessa, me and Tammy

The next day was 4th of July. We thought we were heading to Jim's work party but it turned out that Jim got the wrong day, so we didn't have any plans. We ate at Iguana Grill then headed to Mount Bonnell to watch the fireworks that the Austin Country Club was putting on. We got there right in time, and before most of the crowds. It was busy up there, but not terrible

I just had my little point and shoot camera with me, so I had to balance the camera on the rocks to get these photos. Not the best, but you get the idea of what we were watching. Next year we'll head to the other side of the mountain to watch the fireworks in downtown Austin. We caught a few of them, and they were a lot better than the fireworks that we watched.

Surprise at the Farmers Market

While I was talking about peppers with one of the vendors at the Farmers Market, I saw something that dropped my jaw. I saw a slightly larger version of Abby. I excused myself from the vendor and asked the gentleman with the Abby look-a-like if he got her from Town Lake Animal Shelter. He had found her on Craigslist, but that person said she was a rescue. We were both amazed at how similar they looked. After talking we figured out that they were about the same age, so there is a good possibility they are from the same litter. They had the same fur, same coloring, and same facial features. The only difference is the other dog (whose name is Girley) was a little taller than Abby.

Abby on the left and Girley on the right

Abby on the left and Girley on the right


The girls played around a little before we went on our way to buy more veggies from the vendors. I wish the girls could talk to let us know if they were sisters or not. Not that it would have mattered, but it would have made me feel better knowing that her family had safe homes!!

Abby girl on the way home from the market!!

Did you know you can surf on a lake?

These are were taken using my point and shoot camera over the past weekend. I have NO idea on how to rotate the video, so forgive the crick in your neck that you'll get trying to see the video!!! I am a COMPLETE novice when it comes to surfing but I had a lot of fun doing it. My thighs are still sore from Saturday but it is so worth it. I think I still enjoy wake boarding more, but I think it is because I'm a better wake boarder :) Next time I'll get a video of Jim surfing and post it here.

This was my 2nd time surfing behind a boat. I fell a few times, but overall I think I am getting the hang of it.