Archive for September, 2006

Thanks to all of you who expressed sympathy for my muscle pain. After several days, a doctor’s appointment, and a couple of painkillers, I’m back to normal again. Who knew normal could feel so good? This weekend is the first weekend we’ve had pretty much all to ourselves. It actually feels like the weekend is longer when we don’t have a million places to go and a billion things to do! I suppose that comment should really deserve a “duh!” So, I figured I would do a little bit of light cleaning around the house…

I started with the stack of boxes we received from Andy’s grandparents (in Georgetown) last weekend. In case you haven’t been reading my previous posts…here’s a quick summary. Grandma and Grandpa Trommer were kind enough to give us their old dishes they bought back in Mexico. I was a little hesitant to take them, being that mexican pottery isn’t really my style. However, having a little piece of family history (and a few extra dishes) didn’t seem like a horrible idea, so we took them up on their offer. When we arrived at their house to pick them up, I figured a couple of large boxes would accompany us home. To my shock and surprise, there were 12 boxes of all sizes waiting for us!! We stacked them up in the corner of our living room and there they sat until yesterday when I got the brilliant idea to open all the boxes and give the dishes a good scrub.

Here’s what I found…9 dinner plates, 6 shallow bowls/plates, 12 dessert plates, 9 salad plates, 8 cereal bowls, 6 vegetable bowls, 10 coasters, 10 dessert bowls, 1 butter tray, 1 butter spreader, 2 hot plate pads, 1 fish shaped dish (ashtray?), 4 square serving dishes (various sizes), 6 round serving dishes (various sizes), 2 oblong serving trays, 1 soup ladle, 2 soup tureens (various sizes), 2 sugar dishes with spoons, 1 serving dish for condiments, 1 gravy boat, 1 salad dressing pitcher, 12 saucers, 8 copper plates, 12 teacups, 1 teapot, 1 coffee carafe, 1 spoon rest, 10 mugs, 10 napkin rings, 1 set of salt and pepper shakers, 2 pitchers (various sizes), 1 napkin holder in the shape of a bird, 1 ceramic rooster, 1 cream pitcher, 2 candlestick holders, 1 toothpick holder, 3 undetermined jars with lids, 3 undetermined jars without lids, and 1 pen cup.

I have to admit, I’m slightly overwhelmed with the vast amount of pottery we now have. I’m afraid I’m not quite sophisticated enough to use most of the accessories we have acquired! I’m not even sure how to make gravy for our gravy boat! Make sure you check out my photo gallery for pictures of our new set, especially if you think I’m exaggerating. With all said and done, all the new china is washed, cleaned, and most of it put away. I’m having trouble figuring out where the heck to put all our teacups and mugs, they’re not stackable. Best leave that mind boggling query for next weekend. ^-^

Today is Andy and I’s four year anniversary. That’s right, four years ago, a very nervous Mr. Andy asked me out on friday the thirteenth. Not too romantic at the time, but hey, if we can survive the supposedly most unlucky day of the year, I think we’re doing pretty good! I’m not entirely sure what the plans are tonight, but it will definately be fantastic to spend a nice night together without the distractions of work, calls, wedding details, television, and random house projects.

On a side note, we went to work with our gym trainer on Monday. It was Andy’s brilliant idea to work on legs. Of course, now I’m in severe and unbelievable pain. I’ve always had some minor issues with cramping in my calf muscles while I’m sleeping, which thanks to Wikipedia, I’ve just discovered is an actual problem called nocturnal leg cramping. I don’t know if that has anything to do with my current problem, all I know is that it hurts like you wouldn’t believe! My boss sent me home because I keep limping around like a little old lady and making grimacing faces when I have to move. That plus he said I looked like I was going to pass out. I don’t think I was going to faint, just collapse in a pile of Angela once I FIRE MY LEGS!! Geez! Legs are supposed to support me in my time of need…like when I WANT TO WALK! I suppose I’m just frustrated and tired, not a lot of sleep last night due to the pain. Guess a night of dancing isn’t in the cards for our anniversary celebration tonight. ^-^ Be sure to leave a post if you have any suggestions on what to do for leg cramps!

Work has been crazy busy for both Andy and me. It was a nice break from our normal hectic lives when we drove down to Georgetown (near Austin) to celebrate Sherry’s, Andy’s mom, birthday (September 8 ). We left Friday evening after work and got to the house right before 11 p.m. We did the routine hugs, kisses, and life updates upon arrival. Andy and I then proceeded to pass out like we so often do these days. Andy often wonders if there’s anything wrong with us health wise, I personally think we’re just overtired.

Saturday morning was pretty busy. Rick was thoughtful enough to buy us some very tasty doughnuts from HEB. I always forget how much I love doughnuts. I don’t usually eat a lot of breakfast foods, so I often ignore the fluffy sweet round of chewy dough that is my beloved doughnut. It’s probably a good thing that I’m so forgetful, otherwise my poor thighs would be the size of large tree trunks! We met up with Ben for lunch at Pappasito’s. It was nice getting to hang out with Ben, even though it occured to me that we’ve never seen Ben without Jordan. The fact that Jordan now lives in Houston is pretty difficult to swallow, we really miss the fellow! To top that off, Ben now is thinking of accepting a job in Orlando! Who will give us our regular dose of dry humor dripping with sarcasm? I suppose as a real grown up, I should just with them both luck. However, most of the time I don’t feel grown up, so I think I shall sulk instead.

After lunch, we wandered over to the general region of Kat’s apartment. Her birthday was on Thursday (September 7th) and we wanted to drop off her present. When Andy called, she was not yet at her apartment. So, we happened upon this really neat Goodwill center in the area. Now…I know everyone has seen/been/donated stuff to a Goodwill, so what’s so special right? It’s a series of buildings – a normal clothing/furniture/housegoods store, a community center, a computer store, and a computer museum. How cool is that? A computer store where you can get all sorts of parts, disks, monitors, old games, mice, keyboards…etc. Or in our case, where we can finally unload some of Andy’s old gear! Yay for purging our lives (and house) of stuff we don’t use or need!! We finally met up with Kat, and chatted with the birthday girl and her parents for a few minutes before we were back on the road again.

In the evening, Rick had a wonderful smoked lime chicken dinner planned for Sherry’s birthday celebration. Grandma and Grandpa Trommer came over and brought a lovely chocolate on chocolate cake and rainbow sherbet to top it off. We sang happy birthday, stuffed ourselves silly with delicious food, and cheered Sherry on as she opened her presents. We watched a small snippet of one of Sherry’s favorite films, the Nutty Professor, chatted, played cards, and chatted some more.

Sunday was spent packing up the car, and at the Trommer Grandparents’ house picking up some fun items. They have given us a really neat set of stamp collections, and their old Mexican dishes. I can’t wait to open up the boxes and see what all is included in the dish set, there are certainly enough boxes to peak my curiosity (12 in all!)! We took all our loot and headed to lunch with Rick, Sherry, Griffin, Aunt Sally and Uncle Bodie at the 620 Cafe. It was great getting to hang out with everybody. The food was terrific, the company was spectacular, and we got more PRESENTS! Yay for getting married! We got a beautiful set of glass dessert dishes from Caitlin, and the tea set we wanted from Aunt Sally and Uncle Bodie.

After lunch, we hit the road and are now happily at home. I love traveling, but sometimes there’s nothing better than getting into pajamas and sitting on your teddy sofa diligently blogging. This week promises to be long and crazy. Wednesday marks Andy and I’s four year anniversary. Andy’s parents are coming up on Thursday on their way up to KC. Jordan and his cousin are coming up on Friday night to hang out and move his stuff back to Houston. Wish us luck staying serene and calm! Four weeks to the wedding! (I’ve added some new photos for those that are interested)

The last couple of weeks have been spectacular, but incredibly busy. I apologize for not writing as frequently as I should. But most likely, I’ll never blog as much as I want to. Two weekends ago (August 25th – August 27th), our friends Kat and Josh drove up from Austin to visit us. After admiring our house, we drove down to Dallas for dinner and a tournament. That’s right, it was a full night of Medieval Times! The show had us on the edge of our seat…okay, not really. It was slightly cheesy, but really, can you go to a place called Medieval Times and not expect a little cheese? The acting was pretty horrendous, the food was tasty (plus the bonus fact that we got to eat with our hands), and the atmosphere was pretty thrilling. Our knight (the red and yellow knight) won the tournament due in part to our energetic cheering. All in all, we had a ye olde good time. (yes, we did try to add “ye olde” to everything in sight)

Saturday was spent at Six Flags over Texas. It was WAY too hot for any outdoor activities, let alone standing in line for a topsy turvy roller coaster. However, I do enjoy a good roller coaster every now and again. I think my favorite was the Titan, but followed closely by the slightly more tame Shock Wave. After I (and Kat) sat through a lecture (delivered by Mr. Andy himself) on how there would be no need in the future to have our ice cream in the form of dots, I had a lovely dish of Dippin Dots. We had a big barbeque dinner Saturday night with Kat, Josh, Kareem, David, Annie, Eric, and Sean. It was lots of fun, but we quickly discovered that we don’t have nearly enough chairs for the amount of friends we have! Andy grilled (on his brand new grill) bratwursts and hot dogs. We also had a giant fruit tray from Costco, chips and dip, and Annie’s Fantastic Fudge. Sadly, Kat and Josh had to leave Sunday, work is such a party pooper!

After a long week of training all sorts of graduate students, Labor Day weekend has come at last! Cindy and Wes drove down from Kansas to visit. Yes, we’re very popular and don’t you forget it! We went to the Kimball Art Museum for lunch and wandering around the free gallery. I was pleasantly surprised at the number of famous paintings and artists that they have there for permanent display (i.e. Monet, Picasso, Munch, Matisse). We stopped by Southlake Town Center for some quick birthday shopping, and of course a weekend just isn’t complete till we’ve gone to Costco for barbeque supplies.

We had another large barbeque party with David, Annie, Cindy, Wes, Jason, Courtney, and Griffin. This time we had two additional bar stools that we received as wedding presents from the Hu’s and the Lu’s…*giggle* I just realized that that rhymes. Andy grilled up some chicken, I made lemon pasta, and we had a huge tray of veggies. Annie brought a very tasty oreo cake, baked Cheetos, and of course we had the usual chips and dip. We also had a very rousing game of Cranium Turbo (thank you Sarah and Chris for introducing me to this fabulous game). Where the girls severely beat the pants off of the boys, thank you very much! Favorite moments in the game: Jason trying to draw a mermaid with his eyes closed, Andy trying to act out “monkeys in a barrel”, Cindy trying to sculpt a fireplace, oh…and us winning was definately a highlight.

Sunday was the day of enormous amounts of food. We went to Tokyo One for sushi with Cindy, Wes, and Kareem. After that, we went and studied conspiracy theories at the sixth floor museum in downtown Dallas. I find the history interesting, but the whole scene of the crime rather disturbing. It’s such a strange and morbid idea to take group photos where the president was shot and died. The weather has been rather cool recently for Texas, so we wandered around Dallas for awhile. In the end all everybody really wanted was to go home and take a nice afternoon nap.

Sunday night was Kareem’s goodbye party. He’s leaving for Morocco in the Peace Corp this week. I’m not entirely sure what life will be like without our spunky friend, but I suppose we’ll muddle through somehow. Be sure to check out his blog to see what life is like as a small business developer in Morocco! We had a wonderful time, and wouldn’t you if you had a flowing chocolate fountain?

Cindy and Wes left this morning, leaving Andy and I alone in our strangely quiet house. The weather is nice and gray today, perfect weather for snuggling up on the teddy couch and reading, or perhaps some blogging! Andy’s working hard on something computery, and Schnitzel is snuggled up, as always, in his bed snoozing as a hamster should. I think a nice vegetable stew for dinner would suit the weather nicely. Not to mention, we have a billion pounds of leftover vegetables from our Costco veggie tray. Ha! I just watched Andy spill soda all over his shirt but tried to pass it off as brushing dust off his shirt. With that very long blog completed, I’ll sincerely try to blog more often to avoid my marathon entries.