Monkeys & Baklava

The past few weeks have been busy ones! 

One of the coolest things about living in a major metropolitan area is the huge variety of cultural events & fun festivals.  Last weekend we went to Houston's Greekfest at St. Basil's Greek Orthodox Church (http://houstongreekfest.com/).

Back story: my mom used to work for a Greek accountant who did the books for basically every Greek restaurant in Asheville.  When she would deliver paperwork to them, she sometimes took me. And due to a wonderfully generous food-sharing ethic (yum), they would feed us.  A lot.  So as a kid, I got seriously spoiled on authentic, homemade Greek food. 

It was also a great introduction to Greek culture, and my travels to Greece years ago cemented my appreciation for it.  I would LOVE to go back to Greece someday soon!

The festival was on the smaller side but very lively and fun - they had beautiful architecture:

 

Dancing:

And, of course, FOOD!!!  We had gyros - delicious!!!  And then had to go back for some baklava.  I also got a kourabiedes (a buttery nutty cookie covered in powdered sugar).  Both were SO unbelievably good.  Homemade baklava is absolutely divine. 

 (In fact I totally forgot to take the picture until I had already taken a bite).

Then last week I went to The Big D (Dallas) for work.  It was a great trip!  I got another training certification, which is always awesome, and got to meet a bunch of new coworkers in our Dallas office.  And in my free time in the evenings, I had a little adventure! 

Noel enjoys a show called "Fast & Loud."  Who am I kidding?  I enjoy it too.  :)  It's a show about a garage in Dallas that refurbish old cars into really gorgeous customs.  Noel mentioned to me that if I "happened" to go by their garage and "happened" to buy him a t-shirt, he'd be really happy.  So!  Because I am a kind and loving person who has a high tolerance for rush hour traffic, I totally went to Gas Monkey Garage and parked and stalked them while they made an episode of the show.  And bought him some stuff.  And also a shirt for myself. 

 

 

I even got a picture of Richard Rawlings, the star of the show!

 

 

 

We've been doing some work on the house too, including pimping out our pergola.  In case you weren't aware, Houston gets a bit sunny...and hot...  So we enjoying our beautiful pergola because it's unbearable.  But!  We refuse to submit.  So we made some linens to go on top, installed shower rails on 2 sides, and bought some pretty sheets to act as sun shades on the sides.  Success!!  We love it.  Makes it feel like an outdoor room now. 

And the outdoors are a-blooming!  Our hibiscus is now growing back nicely but is still only about 8 inches tall.  But our canna lilies are already blooming nicely! 

We also had a run in with a squirrel that was like a 3 Stooges routine.  Look at the size of this monster squirrel!!

So I tried to get a picture of him, but every time I would sidle around one side of the tree, he'd inch around the other side.  Then I'd go back the other way slowly, and he'd inch back around the opposite way.  It took...way too long to get this picture.  And of course, Noel was laughing at my inability to not try to get a picture of said squirrel, because I have in fact been bitten by a squirrel before when trying to feed it.

And because a blog post isn't a blog post without it, the requisite Cat in Box photo:

(Note - Poe seems to fit in this box slightly better than Sammy does.)

Nailed It!

Ah yes, Photorama time!

Noel and I have been very busy lately, what with working on the house, the garden, work (duh), and a little bit of traveling.  Photographic evidence below.

First, the house!  We've been working on fixing up our entertainment center.  When we moved in, it looked um....DIY.  And not necessarily in a good way.  We're updating it, fixing it, painting it, and doing some design work on it. It will be fabulous.  Now, I don't have any pictures of it that I can show yet (I want to display it all when it's finished), but I did want to show something that amazed and astounded me.  Despite all of the moving of large pieces of wood, the sanding, the caulking, the nailing, and the painting, I have somehow managed to maintain these:

Yes, they're real.  And yes, they're also hot pink.  Because summer.  Usually when I get vain about my fingernails and paint them, they understand that polish=self-destruct, and usually one or more will break within about 2 hours. 

But!  So far so good.  Anyone for bowling?

Ok, so next on our list of photos (I know that first one was a life-changer, so try not to get overexcited that more Time Magazine caliber pictures are on the way).  Our garden has started to produce!!  We have the weirdest, biggest mutant cucumbers ever.  (Except for Cukezilla a few years ago, that looked more like a small watermelon).  Behold the Bounty!

Summer squash (that will be fried this week), okra, little tomatoes (Noel says they're great in salads), and 2 types of cucumbers.  The one at the top is what most people think of when you say the word "cucumber."  The others at the bottom look like what most people think of when you say the word "prickly oversized zucchini monster."  They are, in fact, cucumbers.  The biggest we had so far was SEVENTEEN INCHES LONG.  That's...not normal.  But it tasted good!

We're freezing the okra for cooler weather, when it will be chopped up and fried.  Yum.  The squash won't make it through the summer.  :)

And although we were excited for the pretty squash, Loki was not impressed.

Next up, we have work.  Now my job (as a trainer/speaker/coach type) sometimes has awesome perks.  One of them happened last weekend (before Memorial Day weekend) with a speaking engagement in The Big D (and I do mean Dallas).  We packed our bags for a 2 day/2 night stay at a luxury resort! 

Samson helped with the packing.

We stayed at the Gaylord Texan, a gorgeous property in Grapevine, TX.  I don't know if any of you have ever seen a Gaylord hotel (other than you, Rachel, who has also seen the one in Nashville that is INSANELY HUGE).  But they are astounding.

The outside of the main hotel:

Also, the weather was gorgeous.  Bit warm, around 90, but beautiful skies, which we could see all the time in the hotel, because the Gaylord properties all have massive atriums (atria?) as the centerpiece of the hotel! 

(Thing In Sky!)

Because of the massive atrium setup, they have essentially a small town inside the hotel, complete with restaurants, shops, entertainment, gardens, trees, walking paths, etc.  At dusk they had these little lights all over the paths.

The Gaylord Texan has (surprise surprise) a Texan theme to it.  This area below was designed to look like San Antonio, and even featured a replica Alamo!  Do you see the little river in the middle of this picture?  It flowed all through the atrium, winding its way around little model train displays, gardens, restaurants, and seating areas.

Here is the same spot at night so you can see how pretty it was in the evening:

The food was some of the best we have ever eaten (seriously, I could eat their lobster bisque every day and be happy).  The staff was exceptionally courteous and efficient (even with my 2 am complaint about the screaming tweens in the next room - tip to parents: nobody thinks your loud obnoxious untrained children are as charming as you do).  There was a spa. Massages were had.  Even the breakfast delivered by room service was phenomenal.  My workshop also went very well. 

My only major quandry?  Why is it that all major humongous hotels have hallways that look like they came straight out of The Shining?
 

CREEPY.

Arugula Ready for Spring?

Let me begin by saying that I understand that many of you are stuck in miserable weather right now.  We are not far above freezing tonight - the low is supposed to be 37!  BRRRRRRR!!!

Anyway, despite the Colder Than A Welldigger's Butt weather right now,

Happy Spring!

 

Our garden is coming up surprisingly well, considering our yard is basically either quicksand or super-hard clay.  But below is a pic!!  I tried to type in labels on everything, but it's probably hard to see.

 

We're trying to grow blackberries.  I also have a small raspberry bush (it's basically a stick with 9 leaves right now).  Being from the mountains originally, we got spoiled on wild blackberries, raspberries & blueberries growing up.  They grow wild at the edges of forests there, and you can usually find them at cemeteries, right by the trees.  I don't know why people think this is creepy.  Blackberries are blackberries, right?  Even if they're slightly morbid.  They don't taste particularly emo and depressed. 

 

 

So in case you can't see, here are the labels of the garden rows from left to right:

1. Okra
2. Cucumbers
3. Sugar Snap Peas
4. Tomatoes
5. Radishes & Salad Mix (same row)
6. Squash

At the left back, by the fence, are the blackberries.  There are more tomatoes in the raised bed at the rear right.  And those are some tough tomatoes - they're from last year, so they survived below freezing temps and are still producing! 

 

Since we can start our gardens so early here (mid February this year), we're already harvesting.  Here's our first radish!

 

 



It looks perfect, and was so juicy!  I ate it with veggie dip.

Noel had our first actual salad of the year, made out of the mesclun mix seeds that Mom sent (it has spinach, arugula, radicchio, etc.) and has a radish cut up on top.  He was surprised at how strong the flavors of the salad mix are.  I guess once you're used to the tired veggies we normally buy at the grocery stores, anything this fresh is bound to taste more...robust.  He thought it was very tasty!  And the salad is still producing, so we'll get lots more.

So that's our garden update. 

In other news, we purged through some of our old paperwork this weekend.  Um....is there any reason why we were saving tax forms from (wait for it) 1998!?  Also, we found approximately 438 different appliance manuals.  Going through them, we realized we only had 2 of the actual appliances still in our possession, and one of the was an iron, which I'm pretty sure I know how to work already.  So.  We had a bonfire. 

Does anyone else have trouble managing the crazy amount of papers that everybody acquires nowadays?  We keep trying out one filing system after another.  And none of them actually seem to work.  Well, guess we'll keep trying.  Or just keep purging owner's manuals every 9 years.  :-P

Although even though going through paperwork isn't the most exciting thing in the world, we did get lots of help.  Of the feline variety.  They are so helpful when it comes to searching the bottom of drawers to find old paperclips, and for keeping the Shred Pile warm by wallowing on it.

I call this photo:  Sunny Samson.

It's surprisingly difficult to photograph any of these cats - as soon as I pull out the camera, they decide they must immediately clean their rear parts.  A Kodak Moment, indeed.

Tool Time!

Happy weekend, everyone!  I hope all of our friends in the northeast are safe & sound (and staying warm!)

It's been insanely warm here, so much so that Noel & I have been marking things off our To Do list.

Now that Noel and I are homeowners, we get to spend some quality time doing things to improve our little homestead.  I've rented so long, it's funny that I sometimes forget we can change things on the house if we want!

So here are some projects we've taken on lately.  I'd just like to give a shout out to our new internet provider, because I was able to upload all of the following photos in, seriously, 10 seconds.  AMAZING.

On to projects!  So we bought a green bench years ago, and it was in great shape.

For a while.
 

 

How could this kind of damage happen to a perfectly innocent bench, you ask?

 

Do you even need to ask?

 

 

When the cats decided to destroy this particular piece of furniture, they were...thorough.

 

Please note that Sammy has a foot stuck in the hole.  After he had torn it away enough to smoosh himself into the lining, he used to lay inside it, like some kind of tattered hammock. 

 

So here was our quick fix.  I didn't feel like reupholstering the whole thing right now, so I took some twine and made some creative patches over the torn parts.  I also touched up the finish on the legs.  It's...well, unique.  I'm not 100% in love with it, but at least the cats can't destroy it.  Funny thing is, I used twine so that if they wanted to scratch on it, they'd at least scratch on the parts that felt like a scratching post.  But I was wrong.  They avoid it now like the plague.  *shrug*

Noel has a workshop in the garage.  When we bought the house, it had a HUGE wooden work table that took up a lot of space and frankly wasn't very useful - it was so deep that he wasn't able to use the majority of it.  So: Brilliant Idea!  It's our table, let's cut it in half and make an L shape!

Here's the original table:

 

We spent several hours sawing, drilling & hammering.  Here is his new workspace (he also put up new fluorescent lights to make it brighter.  It's a really nice (and roomy!) workspace now!

Note that there is yet another project on the sawhorses in the picture above.

It's a plain white divider wall that hides our water heater.  It is ucky. 

 

And guess what?  We own it!  So we can change it!  We found this awesome textured wallpaper at the home improvement store.  It has the glue already on the back, you just have to soak it to activate the glue and then put it in place:

 

Then you trim the excess off and let the paper dry completely:

 

After the paper dried for 24 hours, we painted it to match our front door.  It took several coats (red usually does):

 

 

But how awesome does THIS look now!?  (We added a 3rd piece we found in the garage):

 

 

Here's a closeup of the texture.  Isn't it awesome?

 

 

Yet another project?  We've done several outside ones.  One is a shed we built in the corner of the yard, to house the mower and make Noel's workshop even roomier!

 

The other big outside project?  A new garden!  Yes, I finally took pictures of it.  Does this not look like we have multiple dead bodies buried out there?

 

 

For those of you who think it might be too early to plant a garden, look!  The baby radishes are already coming up!

 

 

Even our lantanas are blooming already!

 

So that's an update on all the exciting domestic things we've been working on.  It's a good thing too - it's supposed to rain tomorrow. 

Hither and Thither (and Now Older!)

Much has happened since the last post, although there is one constant - Noel is still not home from Florida, but at least he's on his way back now!  He should be back sometime tomorrow!  So yes, the Elvis Christmas Tree is still up.  But not for long!

Since Noel was going to be in Florida for such a long time, we decided it was time for a visit.  And seeing as I am doing really well with getting over my flying fear, we got tickets for me to go out to West Palm Beach for a weekend trip!

It was slightly chilly for a dip in the ocean, but we got to take a nice leisurely walk. 

Also. manatees!!

We even saw two of them!  But this was the only picture I could get.  National Geographic should be calling any day now.

Ok, so you know Vanilla Ice, right?  Doofy white rapper guy with parachute pants?  Popular in the 90s?

Take a look at this:

Everybody now:  A1A, Beachfront Avenue!  (That'll be stuck in your head for days.  You're welcome.)

Noel did some research and found us an Irish Pub to go to - Shindig, in Port St. Lucie.  They had fantastic reubens!  And great ambiance - these neat whisky casks in the walls were only part of the cool decor. 

(Isn't he handsome?)

Can't wait to see you soon, honey!  Drive safely!!

So one unfortunate thing about Noel being gone for so long is that he missed my birthday last week.  Yes, I am a year older and am almost in my (gasp!) late 30s.  But if 40 is the new 30, that puts me solidly in my mid-twenties, right?  Anyway, I took matters into my own hands and made myself a cake.  It was pink!  Yum.

I also got a pretty bouquet of flowers from some of my coworkers in Tennessee.  Wasn't that sweet?

I had them on my desk for several days, but then my allergies started acting up so I had to move them.

Then last week, I got on another plane in the other direction, and went for a work trip to the West Texas Town of El Paso!  (No worries - I didn't meet Fellina nor get shot by a wandering angry cowboy).

The airport had these neat copper yucca plants on the roof.  Pretty!  Also, Thing In Sky!

El Paso is the boot capital of the world!  The airport had displays of some really gorgeous ones - these are truly works of art.  I LOVED these black & turquoise ones:

I'd be afraid to wear them anywhere!

So when I got off the plane it was nighttime, and I thought "Wow!  El Paso is really big!"  Look at all these lights!

Then it dawned on me - those lights aren't El Paso, they're Juarez, Mexico!  El Paso is a border town, after all.  Now, before everyone panics, let me say that El Paso is very safe.  I never felt nervous or worried while there.  And my coworkers who are stationed in that office also said that while Juarez itself is going through some really horrible times, the violence hasn't come over to El Paso.  They said that they get frustrated when they hear about the media making it sound like El Paso is the OK Corral.  It seems like a really neat city, and very pretty!  Another misconception I had was that it would be flat desert.  It is desert, but it's high desert.  The mountains around it are very pretty and sparse looking!

So my coworkers there also took me out to eat, and of course we went for Mexican food!  We went to a place called Barriga's, which is apparently actually a restaurant from Juarez that came to El Paso years ago.  I decided to be adventurous and try mole (not the little gray underground critters - gross).  This is pronounced MOH-lay.  It's a spicy sauce that you put over enchiladas and such, but it's different from anything I've ever eaten.  The nice spices are mixed in with chocolate.  Yes, chocolate!  I hadn't tried it before because...well, chicken enchiladas in chocolate sauce sounds more like a dare than dinner. 

BUT.  This stuff has changed my life.  I now want spiced chocolate sauce on everything.  Seriously.  If you ever get the chance to try this stuff, DO IT.

Just looking at that picture is making me drool again.  One of my new coworkers taught me how to make it as well, and I might have to try it at some point.  It didn't sound hard. Of course, it's also not as easy as just going out to eat somewhere and getting it.  I know for sure, next time I'm in El Paso, I'm going there again!

So in non-travel related news, I came home from work one evening and found 5 cows in the back yard.  Sometimes they rub up against the fence and accidentally (?) open the gate so they can come in and chow down on the virgin delicious grass by the house.  (I smell a conspiracy).  I took my flashlight and went out (still wearing my work dress & shoes) to try to herd them out again.  In the dark.  Sigh.  Alas, it was not going to work.  They split ranks and went separate directions, and I just couldn't get them to go the way I wanted.  Cows are not known for their directional abilities. 

Know what they are known for?

Their pooping abilities.  Which they proceeded to demonstrate repeatedly in the front yard.  Yes, I took a picture of cow poop.  Please note that they aim for areas where we are most likely to walk, ie. directly by the gate or next to the sidewalk.  Tell me this is not coincidental.  By the time I went to work the next day, the yard looked like a cow patty minefield, and there were no cows in sight.  Guess they knew when to get out of Dodge.  Thanks, cows!

Look!  Synchronized napping!