Archive for January, 2007

Last night, Andy and I joined my lab friends at Edelweiss for dinner. It’s probably one of the only authentic German restaurants in all of Dallas-Fort Worth. It was definitely a very fun experience, though a little too loud for my taste. I realize that me complaining about too much noise makes me sound old, but when the accordion music is too loud to hear the person next to you, I think my complains are justified. Edelweiss is modeled after a real Bavarian biergarten. There were all sorts of German beers, sausages, schnitzels (the non-hamster variety), spatzles, and sauerkraut. All very tasty, and all much too heavy to eat on a regular basis.

Like I said before, there was a real live band playing for those inclined to dance. The most popular dance was the chicken dance, much to my dismay. There is nothing graceful or talented in dancing a dance that involves flapping ones arms around like a chicken. However, my disdain certainly did not stop the band from playing the chicken dance three times in a two hour time span. We left right as the group macarena dance began. Even though I had a wonderful time, I was more than happy to make a hasty retreat when I saw all sorts of middle-aged women in cowboy hats drunkenly stumbling toward the dance floor to macarena.

Today has been a relatively quiet day. Griffin joined us for lunch and then came over to play 360 with Andy. While they were busy shooting ugly aliens, I worked on cleaning our disgusting house. It seems no matter how hard I try, the house is in shambles after a week of normal everyday living. Why is that? I don’t feel like I’m a very dirty person, but I can never quite seem to keep everything as tidy as I’d like it. Jabber was a good helper, making sure to lick all the dirty spots I missed with my Swiffer. Well my friends, I’m off to continue cleaning. Keep posted for some potentially big news coming tomorrow… (oh the intrigue!)

After much thought and deliberation, I got my hair cut last week before my birthday. The stylist at my local Beauty Brands was completely shocked and amazed that I would intentionally cut off that much hair. She made me promise I wouldn’t cry after she was done, which was odd. I told her to cut the hair, why would I cry afterwards? Either way, I am presenting to all you internet readers out there…my new haircut.

Old Hair

New Hair

Sorry for the delayed post for my birthday, but the week was crazy as always. I had a wonderful birthday weekend, enhanced especially since I didn’t have to work on Monday (Martin Luther King Jr. Day). On Saturday, Andy took me out for lunch at the Snooty Pig. We feel it’s important to support local businesses and restaurants. The Snooty Pig is one such place. It’s a small, family owned, good old American food restaurant. I had a nice breakfast burrito and Andy had the usual chicken fried steak. Very popular restaurant and very delicious. After lunch, Andy took me to get a very soothing pedicure (sparkly purple toes are the way to go). Then we headed home since the weather was pretty miserable, and we tend to feel guilty when Jabber’s in her kennel too long during the weekends.

For the rest of the afternoon, Jabber and I played fetch with her already defunct rope-knot toy. She somehow managed to unravel the knot and is now pulling out all the strings section by section. When she’s particularly successful, she’ll run around the living room with white strands hanging from her lips like spaghetti. I asked a PetCo worker today about a more sturdy puppy toy. He responded with a rather bitter tirade about how he has yet to find a indestructable puppy toy.  Either way, we picked up a rather cheap, non-stuffing, felt ball. We’re seriously holding our breath, hoping that this toy will last longer than a week.

Back to the birthday celebration, for dinner, Andy made a delightfully delicious dinner (yay alliteration) of homemade roast beef, mashed potatoes, and lemon glazed carrots. It was all very tasty, and after dinner we proceeded to watch Gray’s Anatomy for the rest of the night. Side note: has anyone else noticed that most of the medical problems on that show are either tumors or subdural hematoma (bleeding in the brain)? This girl came in with persistent hiccups! Must be a tumor on her diaphragm! Oh No! Man fell from his bed, his brain must be bleeding! Don’t get me wrong, I really like the show, but what is with all the tumors and brain hemorrhages?

I wanted to thank everyone again for all the nice birthday messages, packages, and cards I received. It’s always nice to know people are thinking of you. I got some really cool stuff this year, Audrey Hepburn dvd collection, the original Wallace and Gromit shorts, the Inheritance book series, the animated Cars movie, jewlery, a purse…etc. I’m a lucky gal! However, the greatest present of all…we got snow here in Texas last week! Which meant, of course, the entire city panicked and shut down. No work on Wednesday!! Granted, there was probably no more than a quarter inch of snow, and it melted before 2 in the afternoon, but I’m thankful nonetheless. Gotta love Texans!

So, for those of you who read this blog regularly, you’ll know that I often mention Jabby’s favorite toy, her stuffed giraffe named Jiffy. We had Jiffy ready for Jabber as soon as we got home from the shelter. The second she came into our house, Jiffy was already in her mouth. They have been inseparable ever since.

However, poor Jiffy has slowly been losing body parts ever since Jabber’s arrival. First, her tag came off, then her tail, and finally her horns. Jabber hasn’t really tried tugging anything off recently, so we figured Jiffy was safe. However, in case of utter catastrophe, we bought a spare Jiffy and hid it in the pantry. Well my friends, it looks like Jiffy has finally bitten the dust. I was watching television last night, when I looked over at Jabber, and there lay Jiffy with her guts spilled all over the floor. Jabber had chewed off the face of her best friend! (hm…kind of a bizarre sentence to announce) We have documented the death of Jiffy for your viewing pleasure.

Here is the new-backup Jiffy

And here is poor sad beaten up, gutless, faceless, old, dead Jiffy

We knew this day was coming, but we didn’t know it would be so sudden! Jabber couldn’t understand why Jiffy wasn’t squeaking like normal (as she sat there chomping on Jiffy stuffing). We had to send old Jiffy to the cold dark confines of our kitchen trash can, much to Jabber’s dismay. She sat there for a few minutes trying to figure out how to open the trash can herself to save her Jiffy. That’s when we broke out the New Jiffy. Old Jiffy was soon forgotten as Jabber ran around in joy with New Jiffy in her mouth. However, the same process started over again. In no time flat, New Jiffy’s tag was gone, tail was gone, and horns were gone. It was as if Jabber had unlocked the puzzle to Jiffy slaughter! In about an hour, New Jiffy also had her face destroyed, and our puppy was again feasting on Jiffy innards. It wasn’t until it was bedtime, did Jabber start to miss her Jiffy. She looked around the house frantically trying to find her bedtime companion. We had to explain to her that if she didn’t stop killing her toys, then she could only have hard rubbery toys to play with. Any suggestions on puppy toys that are slightly more durable, but won’t make marks on our nice clean white walls?

In another note, we got these awesome throw pillows for Christmas from my friend Sarah. I’m not sure how she did it, but they match our bedroom decor PERFECTLY! So, I promised to put a couple photos on my blog so she can reaffirm her awesomeness and talent for mind reading.

Not to sound arrogant, but I was most impressed with my cooking skills this past winter break. Who knew the girl that started out only making ramen and hamburger helper could pull off such a feat?? I was able to use almost all of our leftovers in a very innovative way. Just to show off my awesomeness…here are the of the recipes I made. All recipes are fabulous and I highly recommend trying them.

Christmas Dinner Menu – These recipes were chosen because…
1. My mom has a current obsession with sweet potatoes, which can be rather boring when eaten plain. I tried to spice it up and make it a little more tasty.

2. Like most parents, they don’t feel quite right until there are veggies on the table. So, I picked a recipe with the most vegetables I could find…while still sounding appetizing.

3. You’ve got to try the chicken, it’s really amazing!

40 Cloves and a Chicken (Alton Brown)

Chipotle Smashed Sweet Potatoes (Also Alton Brown)

Baked Penne with Roasted Vegetables (Giada De Laurentiis)

Dessert: Raspberry Sorbet, which I tweaked the recipe from the owner’s manual for mango sorbet…turned out fine, so I couldn’t have been that wrong!

Dinner on Wednesday

I had lots of olive oil left over from Christmas dinner’s chicken. Olive oil is very expensive, and I just didn’t have the heart to throw it away! Thank goodness, because then we wouldn’t be able to eat…

Lemon Spaghetti (Giada De Laurentiis)

Dinner on Thursday – barbeque

Grilled Salmon (Andy’s very own secret recipe…which he stole from Scott)

Baked Mac & Cheese with some of the Trommer’s Christmas ham that we brought back with us (learned from Aunt Sally, but here’s a nice recipe from Alton Brown for specifics)

Mediterranean Salad (quickly put together by me, spinach + feta cheese + black olives + the best poppy seed salad dressing ever)

Chocolate Hazelnut Gelato (Giada De Laurentiis)

Artichoke Lemon Dip with Ritz Crackers (Christmas present from my loving sister)

Lunch on Friday

I blended up the mediterranean salad (since all the spinach leaves were squishy with salad dressing) in my nifty hand held food processor to make pesto! Which I then rolled up in the Pillsbury crescent rolls, bake, and enjoy! This was served with some oven reheated mac and cheese from last night. Not very exciting, but the pesto crescent rolls were more than enough to save the show.

I can’t really remember what I cooked for the next couple of days, we may have eaten out…or maybe I cooked something simple. Either way, nothing stands out in my memory, so it couldn’t have been too special. I do, however, remember…

New Year’s Eve Dinner

Reheated Salmon from Thursday Night

Baked Mashed Potatoes (Giada De Laurentiis) – so supremely beautiful and tasty that I had to document my success!

Dinner on Monday – the last night Cathy was in town, I had to make something extra fantastic to ensure her return to our home.

Chicken/Turkey Tetrazzini (Giada De Laurentiis) – turkey also from the Trommer’s Christmas Day feast

The holidays are over, so Andy and I are back on our exercise/diet plan. Recipes are harder to find when there are restrictions in place. Ah well…it’s a challenge, and if there’s anything I’ve learned from this holiday vacation, it’s that a food challenge is always worth taking! Look at all the things we would have missed out on if I decided not to be creative with all our leftovers!

Okay, this is the post from hell!! I have now written this post twice, but for some strange reason, it won’t let me save without posting and everything I write except for the first couple lines gets lost. That is the reason for the “YARG!” I had a very nice, very charming post written about my holiday break. I will try to recreate what I can…but you may have to use your imagination as to what the original was going to be like.
One would think, that with all my time off I would be able to write more posts. Alas, I was so lazy and so relaxed that I have barely even stepped foot into the office. Which by the way, I am currently typing on my very spiffy very new iMac computer that I received for Christmas from my parents. Yay parents! It’s one of those nifty computers that doesn’t have a tower, everything is built into the screen. I also have a wireless keyboard and wireless mouse. I was wonderfully surprised and Andy is relieved that he no longer has to buy me one.

Christmas (day and eve) was spent with family this year. We drove down to Georgetown to be with Andy’s family the weekend before Christmas and left there after lunch on Christmas Day. We then trucked it back to Keller to meet up with my family, who drove down from Kansas that morning. My poor dad has had a crazy hectic schedule and could only take a couple days vacation from his busy schedule. Either place, we were surrounded by good food, good conversation, and we loved getting to see everyone that we love for the holidays. I got some awesome presents this year. Andy bought me a Prada wallet and the Xbox 360 game, Viva Pinata. Cathy stayed behind to hang out with me for the week, and we’ve been playing the game obsessively. I also got some much needed gift cards, two pretty Ann Taylor sweaters, a Rachael Ray cookbook, a Texas Gardening guide (now I have no excuse to have an ugly garden), candles, ornaments, and books. I’m a lucky gal, what else can I say?

Cathy and I have been just hanging out. We hit the after Christmas sales (got some neat things for great prices), watched television, saw Night at the Museum (fun movie, definately no deep thinkers here, just harmless fun), entertained the puppy (who destroyed her Christmas stuffed hamburger in 2 minutes), and just relaxed. It was nice, and it’s been awhile since I got to just be not busy. New Year’s Eve was pretty uneventful as well. We had Griffin over to the house. We watched Little Miss Sunshine, ate lots of…carrotsticks, definately no junk food, definately carrotsticks, played board games, and counted down to the new year. Sure, it wasn’t very exciting, but I had a lot of fun. At first, I was worried that my lack of enthusiasm toward going out on the town (which was a problem anyway, seeing as how both Cathy and Griffin are both under 21) was due to me getting too old. But who cares if I’ve overgrown that particular phase? I no longer have to primp for hours on end, trying to squeeze into some barely there outfit that will make me freeze my tushy off, stand in line for an hour trying to get into a smoke filled bar where I have to wait for another hour just to use the disgusting bar bathrooms, order overpriced drinks that are mostly water/soda, yell at my friend over the horribly loud bass that is probably causing my eardrums to bleed internally, and then go home in the wee hours of the morning just to discover that I reek of smoke and will have to burn my barely there outfit, that in actuality probably cost no more than $5. I would so much rather hang out with friends in an atmosphere where I can actually hear what they’re saying and still smell pretty!

Due to the passing away of President Ford, the UNTHSC was closed today for the memorial. I know I should be tremendously sad at the death of a good man, but there was definately hollering and whooping last night as I leaped around the living room at the thought of not having to work today (poor Jabberwocky probably thought her idiot owner was trying to fly or something doing something equally stupid). So, as my last moments of freedom slip away, I want to leave you with some photos I took of our holidays. Enjoy and welcome to 2007!