What we've been up to :)

Some ceiling tiles in place! Kevin and Jim started it, we hired Kevin to take down the old tiles and do a bunch in the middle, then Jim and I finished up about the last third. And the part around the hood, which was tricky. :)

Naughty kitty, helping hold down that little stack of tiles.

Jungle kitty! This beautiful amaryllis bloomed (I have photos of that too), then was mysteriously broken off in the night. It *was* leaning, but this kitty likes to sit in the pot so I can't help but be suspicious. (It's in a vase now.)

No more cooktop!

No more island!

Mmm, linoleum from 1972.

Whoah, Yech! (cute doggy though!)

Yep, nothing left but the sink at this point (this was wed night very late of last week, 4/11.) As it turns out, not having a sink like just the last few days is *very* annoying.

Next, the new floor! :)

Kitchen Demolition Derby

March 18th.

Several Days Later...

Aww, the Peeps. :)

The white & black kitty is Chadwick, Romni's nice cat.

(as opposed to Max, the other one.)

No crappy hood over the island...

No ceiling over the island...

Natalie's (other) birthday party :)

Mock up of the new island. Jim is testing out our mock rangetop.

New cabinets AND floor are in, pics over the weekend!

Natalie's Birthday Blanket

Here are some pictures from Natalie's birthday party.
Mama stole the show with her fah-bu-lous birthday blanket, made of scraps of many of Natalie's pajama pants. What a lovely brand new heirloom! :)

The partygoers

The cake, which was covered in saran wrap with candles poked through. Ha HA, NO GERMS! =)

Mama's beautiful blanket, installed.

Susan's most excellent Adobo Chicken recipe

Hello Peeps, sorry it's been so long - we're wrapped up in getting the kitchen ripped out and replaced. I've taken lots of pics to post, but 'til then here is a delicious recipe that Susan made for us that was so yummy I got the recipe from her and made it for Natalie's birthday. (Natalie had pork fried rice, too.) Mama wanted the recipe, so here it is. Note I doubled the onions and used more legs, probably about 30+.


Susan's Chicken Adobo:

* 2 large onions
* About 20 chicken drumsticks. You could use wings also, but there's more meat on the legs.
* a bay leaf

* cup water
* cup soy sauce
* cup vinegar. Susan uses 1/4 cup cider and 3/4 cup rice vinegar, vary to taste.
(Use equal portions of the liquids. Depending on how large a batch you are making the amount can be varied.)

Slice & cook the onions in a large fry pan w/Pam or a little oil until softened. Meanwhile, skin the drumsticks. (If you don't skin them, eat a lot less of them, and if you are using a crock pot you definitely want to skin them). Add a bay leaf to the fry pan, and brown the legs in the onions. If you are doing a lot, transfer the onions to a separate dish, then brown the chicken in small batches with a portion of the onions and transfer each batch to the crock pot or a braising pan as you finish browning them. Add the liquids to the crock pot or braising pan when you are done browning, and cook on a crock pot for 8 hours on low or 4 hours on high. If cooking in a regular pot, cook for about 45 minutes to an hour on low. The chicken is done when the tendons snap.

So delicious, it can't be described by reading the ingredient list alone, you have to try it. =)

Happy Valentines Snow Day!

OK this has been the MOST snow I've ever seen all at once.
We went out and played in it last night, and you can't really tell from the photos but it is waist deep. Higher on Romni. We got 38 inches yestersay, and we already had probably a foot an a half.

The deck around 4 wed. Note you can still see the wood of the picnic table..

6:00 PM

Fondue for dinner, note how interested Griffin is. She leaaaned over and bothered us all dinner. :)

8:30 PM

Almost midnight

The next morning.

The deck from the upstairs bathroom

The bird garden. That lump next to the bird house is a 3 foot tall birdbath. These would be awful days to stop feeding the birds. Awesomeness: we've had some cardinals for several days!

The trail out to the chickens that Natalie, Romni, William, Caesar and I made last night. It was exhausting and we had to carry poor Caesar, even the trail we were pushing was 2 feet deep over his head. They'll need water today, I'm thinking about snowshoes.

The cars. That's a pontiac Vibe behind a Volkswagon Golf on the right, and a Plymouth Neon on the left, in case you can't tell. In the middle, the detritus from William driving over on a limping Snowmobile, plus Natalie and Romni and I playing King of the Mountain. Romni fights dirty, but she's easy to toss around. :)

How to propose to Natalie

Natalie apparently laid down the "rules" for proposing over dinner at Chili's. Here are the "notes" William took, on his beer coaster :)

We Love our Wii!

It's 1:00 AM, Jim and I should sooooo be in bed, but Caitlin has *finally* found an application for her favorite fight-move ever: the windmill.

Flail arms in a rotating motion, like pasties tassels at a cabaret. Repeat.
Jim remarks that I'm sure doing a lot of killing to all that air.
"The grass, too!" I point out with smug satisfaction.

The Wii manual says that I can roll the nunchuck (left handheld, which is attached to the right-hand remote by a cable) side-to-side while swinging the right-hand remote back and forth to effect a spinning sweep attack.
Windmill!

I windmill so vigorously, I pull the cables between my handhelds taut. Little shop of horrors biting plants explode before they can come up out of the tall grass. Swamp goblins and flying bats and rats explode in flashes of light. I mow the tall grass flat. Instead of turning on my lantern, I windmill down long dark tunnels, holding down the Z-key to auto-target enemies. I beat the walls and the floor and the lighting fixtures and the ever-present grass clumps.

Jim sighs in disgust at my complete lack of finesse.
Ha HA! Am I enjoying this game targeted at probably thirteen-year-olds? Hell yeah! Is my horse name a dirty euphemism? Darn Straight!

"Oh hi Caitlin, I washed [euphemism] for you." Coos the girl at the lake, whom I can tell by the lighting and music and her giant eyelashes that my big-eyed extra manly teen character is sweet on.
Ahh, now that's how you play the game. :)

Thanks Kagan & Alexe, I know we've been awful about thank-you notes, but we really are enjoying it. Thank you notes are in the works for everyone, I swear!

More Arisia Pics

Setting up the fabric on the walls. I heard this was very static-y and folks arms were going numb from unrolling the fabric. I was in the other room, setting up the bridge.

The bar. It was lit up from within by a black light, upholstered in black PVC, and had a clear panel in the top so the drinks would glow. We put B vitamins in the lemonade so it glowed in black light. There was a blinking blue rope light clipped to the edges - Andy & Carla did an amazing job on the bar. The rocket ship tip jar was mine. :)

The bridge starts getting set up.

Jim tests out the captain chair. That chair was already in the room :)

Happy Workers.

The bridge all set up. The Luke Skywalker guy seemed really nice, we invited him friday while he was dressed up as Luke and he said 'Oh I'll put this back on & come to the party, absolutely.'

"Send a warning shot across their bow, ensign."

Hot Morgan, looking hot.

Hot Morgan, cracking a smile. The geeks were *so* geeky this year, someone managed to notice that her badge rank (Lt Commander Skank) did not quite match her outfit. =)

Door guards, in the hallway. Note that their expressions have not changed.

Commander Skank. Soooo cute! We totally forgot about the cape I made though :(

Room before the lights go out

See the bar there, glowing, to the right?

Romni had glowing wires.

Dancing fools

Some guy we let in right away.

Morgan's outfit friday night, just had to post it. :)