Archive for April, 2008

So, after all my planning, cleaning, and preparing, Andy’s parents arrived in Keller on Friday night. Sadly, I had to work from 4 to 12:30 am and wasn’t able to welcome them. Thankfully, work ended pretty quickly and I was back at home to join the festivities. The next morning, I made some tasty, gooey, and very Pillsbury dough in a can cinnamon rolls for breakfast. Pair that with a fresh cup of coffee and we were set for the day!

We chatted for awhile, played with Jabber, and eventually headed out for our mini-Saturday adventure. We started by heading down to the Kimball Art Museum in Fort Worth’s cultural district (and since it is right across the street from the UNTHSC campus, where I used to work, I know the area decently well). They have a lovely courtyard cafe that serves yummy food. Plus, since they don’t currently have any touring galleries, the entire museum was free for us to wander around.

I am the first to admit, that I’m not exactly an art connoisseur. Yes, I was brought up to appreciate all the Monets, Renoirs, Picassos, and Van Goghs of the world. However, modern art confuses me to no end, and I can’t stare at any picture for more than…30 seconds. This makes for short museum trips, and that generally frustrates Andy, who enjoys leisurely afternoons meandering around the great masterpieces of past eras. I did find this little fellow quite entertaining. Figures I would find the only piece of art that resembled Jabber in any way, to top it off, it’s from ancient China!

After we had enough art for the day, we headed to the Fort Worth Botanical Gardens to enjoy the beautiful weather. This is one of the few times of year where Texas weather is tolerable. No, it doesn’t snow here, but man is it unbearably hot for much of the fall and summer! The gardens were beautiful, and I’m glad we were able to visit them (and the fact that it’s also free admission makes me even happier!).

After our stroll, we headed back to the house to meet up with Griffin and Courtney, and also to rest and relax before our huge Mexican fiesta barbeque. Andy and I made grilled steak and chicken, homemade Mexican rice, fresh tortillas (both flour and corn from Los Molcajetes), black beans with queso fresca, guacamole, chips and salsa, grilled onions and peppers, margaritas, and creme caramel gelato for dessert

I think the dinner was received well, and that everyone enjoyed themselves. After dinner, we played a couple rounds of Rock Band and Guitar Hero 3. But we actually ended the night with several rounds of mahjong. I had forgotten how much I liked the game, and I should really teach more of my friends how to play so we can have mahjong nights just like my parents do!

The next morning, we had a nice lunch at Griffin’s work, Robson Ranch. I know Andy’s parents really enjoyed getting to watch their youngest son at work. Plus, now that the golf course is turning green again, the scenery is really quite lovely…for Denton, Texas. Sadly, the weekend was over much too fast and the Trommer parents left for Austin shortly after lunch. Andy and I spent the rest of the afternoon running errands and trying to relax as much as possible before the work week started all over again. It was a very enjoyable weekend (for all the photos, click here) and I can’t wait for the next one! Sigh…4 more days to go.

Me and Jabber hamming it up for the camera…

So, after a long 9 day stretch at work last week, I have finally reached my 2 days off (plus this weekend). Work was not more difficult than usual, but after such a long time without a break, I get pretty cranky and irritable. Unfortunately, the customers seem to get cranky right along with me. I don’t know if they can sense and channel my negative energy, but trust me, during my last couple of days I dealt with some truly unpleasant people. I probably didn’t handle it as well as my usually cheerful self would have, but I did my best under the circumstances.

So, what am I doing with my days off? Relaxing? Sitting in the sunshine catnapping? Drinking pretty umbrella drinks? Yeah right! Loads and loads of laundry later, I still have to clean the house, get Jabber a bath, dry cleaning, wash dishes, blog (see? Blogging has become an item to check off the list!), tidy up the kitchen, exercise, organize bills, and a enormous list of other little errands that I’m unable to attend to while working. So basically, it boils down to the fact that I’m running a muck whether I’m at work or at home.

Luckily, I was able to meet up with some of the pharmacy girls (Adriane, Krystina, and Kim) for lunch today at the Chapa Grill. If you haven’t been there, you really should make the trip during lunch sometime. The food is terrific and the price really can’t be beat! $7.50 for an all you can eat delicious Brazilian meal with friendly staff. Adriane brought her new baby girl, Addyson. What a sweet baby, but unhappy with the weather (or her tummy?) so cried a little during the meal. I’m not entirely sure what to do with a crying baby, ignore her? Rock her? Jiggle her? Make faces at her? I just plain don’t have enough expertise in the area, so I wasn’t of much help. Thankfully Kim and Adriane knew what to do, and was able to get everything under control.

Kim brought her 2, almost 3, year old daughter Cadence. What a pretty little girl, quiet and very shy, but seemed content to just sit and stare at the rest of us. What strange eating habits 2 year olds must have. She ate pickles and chocolate mousse. Loved that chocolate mousse! Though, how much ended up on her face and how much ended up in her tummy, is still up for debate.

I had a lot of fun, and it was definitely nice to stop cleaning for an hour or so to chat with friends. But here I am at home, armed with my list of to-do’s, ready to keep tackling my items until I go back to work tomorrow night. Sigh…one of these days, I’ll learn how to be a good relaxer. However, not today.

Oh! Pictures that I took of the flowering bushes in our front yard (and Jabber supervising our gardening efforts)

I bought Jabber a new toy from work today. She loves plush toys, especially if they have squeakers in them. However, she has a nasty tendency to destroy the plush toys in about 5 minutes by immediately pulling all the stuffing out of the stuffed animal. So, when I saw a brand that sells stuffing-less animals ( in bunny, fox, badger, skunk, and squirrel), I knew we had a winner! Not to mention, the toy had TWO squeakers inside!! This is the reaction I got from the puppy.

I don’t think I’ve ever seen her quite so excited before! She loves Cletus, the roadkill fox. Yes, the stuffing-less toy looks a bit like roadkill. It’s even more disturbing when Jabber is playing with it and flopping its limp body around. But she absolutely adores it, so I guess that’s all that matters. Maybe I’ll even invest in the other animals, guess it really depends on how long Cletus survives in the family.

As many of you may know, the KU Jayhawks have made it to the championship basketball game against Memphis tonight. Those of you that follow basketball understand that this is quite a season for KU, and that it’s quite a feat to make it to the final two teams. And those of you that follow…me, may be surprised that I care. I am not quite what you would call a sports aficionado, to put it lightly. However, I do make an attempt to watch the Jayhawks, mostly because Andy enjoys the games (and proudly supports KU) and partially because it’s not horrible sport to watch. It’s pretty fast paced and easy enough to understand. Don’t get me wrong, I’m still not sure how I got an A on my basketball test in PE class back in high school (Mr. Reichert the PE teacher would be so disappointed). The games are usually peppered with my questions of “What’s happening?”, “Why’d they do that?”, “Did he just trip on his own feet?”, “That’s good what they just did, right?”…etc

With all that said, I would now like to make a plea to the KU Basketball team to win tonight. Not just for the championship title, not just for the glory and fame that will come with it, though those are pretty good reasons. I’d like to encourage you to win for all us Kansans that have had to suffer through endless yellow brick road jokes, endure the little nose wrinkles of disgust when proclaiming where we’re from, reassuring people that Kansas is indeed habitable and yes, we do have movie theaters and McDonald’s, and for the small number of us that have a fierce pride to be from Kansas that seems to confuse the rest of the world. Do your best and make us proud! No matter what the outcome we promise we’ll still support you next year. Oh…and Rock Chalk Baby!