You guys are really getting your money's worth this week! Four blog updates in a one week span? That's just crazy talk.
Last night we had a great dinner at Salt Lick BBQ for Taylor's birthday. We ended up having to wait for almost an hour, but we all got stuffed full of delicious barbecue. I decided on getting the "family style" plate, which means all you can eat brisket, pork ribs, sausage, coleslaw, potato salad, and beans. I ate a couple plate's worth, then stocked up on some more to take home. Believe it or not, I walked away with 3 to-go boxes: two for meat and one for sides. Also, we managed to gather a sizable group of about 20 people for dinner. Holy crap that's a lot of people.
We got Taylor an iPhone 3GS for her birthday, and I think she immediately loves it. It's about time she got a smartphone... Get the hint? On Friday, we have a house party for her birthday. Should be fun.
Want to hear a funny story? I had chicken parmesan for lunch, which was average as usual for our cafeteria. Every week, I stockpile some frozen dinners to have as my midday snack between lunch and dinner. Turns out my last one left for this week is also chicken parmesan. I get (?) to have chicken parmesan twice today, how exciting. Sorry, that wasn't so funny after all.
Thursday, May 12, 2011
Wednesday, May 11, 2011
under pressure
Every once in a while our nurse at work will take our blood pressure. Here are my three measurements:
11/9/10: 120/68
3/22/11: 116/60
5/10/11: 110/52
Not bad!
11/9/10: 120/68
3/22/11: 116/60
5/10/11: 110/52
Not bad!
Tuesday, May 10, 2011
eek! a mouse!
Mice, mice everywhere.
About a month ago, we discovered we had mice in our garage. Well, at the time we assumed it was just one. Then two weeks back, Andy and I journeyed into the garage on an expedition to enslave the mouse and rid ourselves of it. After clearing out a lot of items in the garage and clogging up some of the holes it could use to escape, we scared it out of its corner only to find out there were two mice. It turns out we did a bad job at clogging, because the first mouse got away, but not easily. The second one ran into a corner and we devised a plan: get pieces of wood and make a "path" that it will take straight into a cardboard box that we will close shut as soon as it runs in. Think of it as a really easy wooden maze that leads you straight into captivity.
It actually took a few attempts for our clever little plan to work. We kept accidentally leaving little gaps in our path where the mouse would escape through to other parts of the garage. Each time, we scared it back into the same corner and reconstructed our path. Eventually, after probably three attempts, we finally got it into the box. After taping it shut and cleaning up the garage, we drove about a half mile from the house and let it out by railroad tracks. Will it return? It's hard to say, but we assumed it was too far. Neither of us had the necessary manhood to kill it.
Fast-forward to last Wednesday after work, where I was letting Maverick out to take care of business. After a few minutes, he started acting really strangely and I realized almost immediately that he must have found a mouse. Is it the one who originally escaped, or the one we let go far away that had returned? Even worse, could it possibly be neither and be a third mouse instead? I stopped worrying about it and instead enjoyed the dog-and-mouse game that they were playing around the patio. A few times Maverick would lose the mouse, thinking it was still behind some potting soil when in fact it had run to a different spot altogether. My height compared to Maverick's served as a definite advantage, as I was able to survey the playing field a lot easier than him. When he would lose the mouse, I tried to hint to him that it was over somewhere else instead. Of course, he was too stupid to pay attention to me or listen, so I just picked him up and placed him by where the mouse now was. This went on for about 20 minutes until me, Maverick, and Andy who had eventually joined us all lost the mouse. I went back inside for a brief moment and came back outside to find that Maverick found the mouse again in the middle of the yard, and he finally grabbed it with his mouth. At this point it was all but over for the mouse. Maverick made an interesting, yet slightly twisted game out of the next 20 minutes. He would let the mouse go, paw at it some, and then lie down next to it. It would start to run away (albeit slowly because of the grass), and he would go after it and catch it, and then lie down and wait again. Eventually after some time, he started to grab it and take little "crunch" bites that would crush it, and then let it go. It started to get a bit disgusting after the second crunch, so I separated Maverick and the mouse. I gave Maverick a nice juicy bone to distract him while Andy put the mouse out of its misery.
Fast-forward yet again to last Sunday. Justin was about to mow, and he found two more mice under the mower in the corner of our garage. Using my experience from my last adventure, I knew what the mice would try to do and we developed a simple little setup that worked flawlessly. We got both mice, and Justin did the manly thing and disposed of them. It was a lot more hassle-free than the previous time, and now we know that at least those two mice won't be returning. Are we finally done with the mice? I don't know but it sure is making for some entertaining times.
Tomorrow is Taylor's birthday. Happy early birthday! For her birthday dinner we are hitting up Salt Lick BBQ, making it an official tradition since we went last year too. On Friday, we are going to have some people over to the house and have a party on her behalf. Should be fun, I think I will play a lot of beer pong.
About a month ago, we discovered we had mice in our garage. Well, at the time we assumed it was just one. Then two weeks back, Andy and I journeyed into the garage on an expedition to enslave the mouse and rid ourselves of it. After clearing out a lot of items in the garage and clogging up some of the holes it could use to escape, we scared it out of its corner only to find out there were two mice. It turns out we did a bad job at clogging, because the first mouse got away, but not easily. The second one ran into a corner and we devised a plan: get pieces of wood and make a "path" that it will take straight into a cardboard box that we will close shut as soon as it runs in. Think of it as a really easy wooden maze that leads you straight into captivity.
It actually took a few attempts for our clever little plan to work. We kept accidentally leaving little gaps in our path where the mouse would escape through to other parts of the garage. Each time, we scared it back into the same corner and reconstructed our path. Eventually, after probably three attempts, we finally got it into the box. After taping it shut and cleaning up the garage, we drove about a half mile from the house and let it out by railroad tracks. Will it return? It's hard to say, but we assumed it was too far. Neither of us had the necessary manhood to kill it.
Fast-forward to last Wednesday after work, where I was letting Maverick out to take care of business. After a few minutes, he started acting really strangely and I realized almost immediately that he must have found a mouse. Is it the one who originally escaped, or the one we let go far away that had returned? Even worse, could it possibly be neither and be a third mouse instead? I stopped worrying about it and instead enjoyed the dog-and-mouse game that they were playing around the patio. A few times Maverick would lose the mouse, thinking it was still behind some potting soil when in fact it had run to a different spot altogether. My height compared to Maverick's served as a definite advantage, as I was able to survey the playing field a lot easier than him. When he would lose the mouse, I tried to hint to him that it was over somewhere else instead. Of course, he was too stupid to pay attention to me or listen, so I just picked him up and placed him by where the mouse now was. This went on for about 20 minutes until me, Maverick, and Andy who had eventually joined us all lost the mouse. I went back inside for a brief moment and came back outside to find that Maverick found the mouse again in the middle of the yard, and he finally grabbed it with his mouth. At this point it was all but over for the mouse. Maverick made an interesting, yet slightly twisted game out of the next 20 minutes. He would let the mouse go, paw at it some, and then lie down next to it. It would start to run away (albeit slowly because of the grass), and he would go after it and catch it, and then lie down and wait again. Eventually after some time, he started to grab it and take little "crunch" bites that would crush it, and then let it go. It started to get a bit disgusting after the second crunch, so I separated Maverick and the mouse. I gave Maverick a nice juicy bone to distract him while Andy put the mouse out of its misery.
Fast-forward yet again to last Sunday. Justin was about to mow, and he found two more mice under the mower in the corner of our garage. Using my experience from my last adventure, I knew what the mice would try to do and we developed a simple little setup that worked flawlessly. We got both mice, and Justin did the manly thing and disposed of them. It was a lot more hassle-free than the previous time, and now we know that at least those two mice won't be returning. Are we finally done with the mice? I don't know but it sure is making for some entertaining times.
Tomorrow is Taylor's birthday. Happy early birthday! For her birthday dinner we are hitting up Salt Lick BBQ, making it an official tradition since we went last year too. On Friday, we are going to have some people over to the house and have a party on her behalf. Should be fun, I think I will play a lot of beer pong.
Thursday, May 5, 2011
Monday, May 2, 2011
it's your weekend update!
I'll have to start with the big news, in case for some reason you've been living under a rock and hadn't heard: Osama bin Laden has been killed. Big news, right?
Aside from that, this weekend has been relatively quiet. Taylor had one tickets to Moody Blues on Thursday, and we saw the first part of their show. After about a half hour they had a 20 minute intermission, and by that point we were good to go. We aren't huge Moody Blues fans and I personally don't know any of their songs. They were good but I didn't want to stay for several hours and a few intermissions.
On Sunday, we celebrated my grandma's 88th birthday.
Next weekend is Mother's Day, don't forget!
Next weekend is Mother's Day, don't forget!
Thursday, April 28, 2011
another late post
It's a downward spiral effect. The longer I wait to post, the less motivated I am to post because I have to write more to catch everybody up. I need to get back on the ball with this...
The highlight of last weekend for me was my prime rib adventure on Sunday. I bought a ~4 lb prime rib that cost me about $43, and I needed to cook it correctly the first time so all that cash didn't go to waste. I followed the recipe from Serious Eats (and for those who are interested in a little food science, you can read the article on how the recipe came to be), and everything turned out better than expected. The meat came out a glorious reddish-pink and juicy. In fact, here's a snapshot:
It was quite literally the best [homemade] steak I've ever had. Since a majority of the steak was medium rare, as opposed to a small 1/2"-1" strip of medium rare in most steak cuts, it was very tender. I almost want to do this more often, except that it costs a buttload of money.
On Monday, we had our flag football playoffs and it did not go well. We lost out on our first game, but just as well. They were doing the whole playoff bracket in one day, meaning that some teams could have up to four back-to-back games. That seems a bit intense and crazy to me, but ended up being a moot point for us.
Tuesday was the penultimate day of class for the one I'm taking this semester, which is nice. After next week, I won't have anymore late days because all sports and classes will be over... at least until June. After class, Andy and I went to help out Taylor's kickball team because they were a tiny bit shorthanded. It was a good game, but unfortunately I screwed up in the outfield which led to a grand slam. A GRAND SLAM! Son of a bitch. We ended up losing 13-8. I might help them out one or two more times this season.
Things are going strong at work for me after having to take up extra responsibilities and tasks because of our reduction. Let's hope this will be the last set of layoffs for a while.
The highlight of last weekend for me was my prime rib adventure on Sunday. I bought a ~4 lb prime rib that cost me about $43, and I needed to cook it correctly the first time so all that cash didn't go to waste. I followed the recipe from Serious Eats (and for those who are interested in a little food science, you can read the article on how the recipe came to be), and everything turned out better than expected. The meat came out a glorious reddish-pink and juicy. In fact, here's a snapshot:
It was quite literally the best [homemade] steak I've ever had. Since a majority of the steak was medium rare, as opposed to a small 1/2"-1" strip of medium rare in most steak cuts, it was very tender. I almost want to do this more often, except that it costs a buttload of money.
On Monday, we had our flag football playoffs and it did not go well. We lost out on our first game, but just as well. They were doing the whole playoff bracket in one day, meaning that some teams could have up to four back-to-back games. That seems a bit intense and crazy to me, but ended up being a moot point for us.
Tuesday was the penultimate day of class for the one I'm taking this semester, which is nice. After next week, I won't have anymore late days because all sports and classes will be over... at least until June. After class, Andy and I went to help out Taylor's kickball team because they were a tiny bit shorthanded. It was a good game, but unfortunately I screwed up in the outfield which led to a grand slam. A GRAND SLAM! Son of a bitch. We ended up losing 13-8. I might help them out one or two more times this season.
Things are going strong at work for me after having to take up extra responsibilities and tasks because of our reduction. Let's hope this will be the last set of layoffs for a while.
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