No, not our baby. Jen's friend Vanessa had her baby Logan yesterday. She and her husband Robby were esconced at the hospital here in Lafayette, so we swung by before church today to say howdy to them and the new baby.
This was also a bit of scouting on our part, since that hospital will most likely be where our child will be born. Robby and Vanessa gave it a thumbs up, and the facilities certainly look nice there. I think this may be the first time ever and certainly in a very long time that I've gone to see a new baby in the hospital. Now it is a vision of things to come.
After church we had some folks from there over for lunch. I had a roast in the slow cooker, and other than not being shreddable, it was quite tasty. I just sliced it up for sandwiches and we had a grand time. Emmy Lou brought an awesome apple pie that is making me consider changing my crust recipe. Soooo good!
Sunday, October 30, 2011
Oh, Snap!
We had our first snow of the season on Tuesday and Wednesday. It was unusually heavy for this time of the year. We ended up having about a foot in our backyard, though our front yard was more like 4 inches. Weather oddness. On top of that, the streets were mostly dry by the end of Wednesday, so Jen and I went out and had some delicious food at the Trattoria on Pearl that evening.
After waking up on Wednesday morning and exercising, two things became apparent. First off, I needed to get out and brush snow off our trees, all of which had the bulk of their leaves still on, especially our two apricot trees. Secondly, I discovered the answer to a mystery. On Tuesday night, Jen and I had been relaxing in front of the TV with the snow flurries busy outside when we heard a loud crash that sounded like it came from our garage. We went out and investigated, expecting to have some wild animal or a broken shelf. However, we couldn't find anything askew. So we went to bed. However, the next morning the mystery was solved. Our umbrella for the patio furniture was snapped in half and laying prone on the deck. It was open. Ohhhhhh. See, I've never owned a patio umbrella. I also grew up where thinking about the consequences of heavy snow was not an issue. So I was not thinking about our open patio umbrella. And now the metal post is sheared into an irreparable mess. Well, that umbrella was nice for the half of a summer we had it...
After waking up on Wednesday morning and exercising, two things became apparent. First off, I needed to get out and brush snow off our trees, all of which had the bulk of their leaves still on, especially our two apricot trees. Secondly, I discovered the answer to a mystery. On Tuesday night, Jen and I had been relaxing in front of the TV with the snow flurries busy outside when we heard a loud crash that sounded like it came from our garage. We went out and investigated, expecting to have some wild animal or a broken shelf. However, we couldn't find anything askew. So we went to bed. However, the next morning the mystery was solved. Our umbrella for the patio furniture was snapped in half and laying prone on the deck. It was open. Ohhhhhh. See, I've never owned a patio umbrella. I also grew up where thinking about the consequences of heavy snow was not an issue. So I was not thinking about our open patio umbrella. And now the metal post is sheared into an irreparable mess. Well, that umbrella was nice for the half of a summer we had it...
Tuesday, October 18, 2011
Bun in Oven
So, one thing Jen and I started doing this weekend was to start spreading the news. The news is that we're going to be parents! Jen is at the end of her first trimester, so the baby should be due some time in April. She's doing well; her symptoms haven't been too severe. So far things seem to be going smoothly. The next milestone will be finding out the gender, but that's still several weeks off. We're excited and grateful that God has blessed us with a child so soon after we started trying. Anyway, that's the big news!
Anticipation on the Rocks
Coming home tonight, I was very excited about two things. One is Catching Fire, which is the sequel to The Hunger Games. It is rather good, stringing one cliffhanger ending of a chapter along with the next. I was excited to read it tonight, but I wasn't sure how much I would read because today I also picked up Batman: Arkham City for the XBox 360, which is the sequel to the very excellent game Batman: Arkham Asylum.
My compromise would be that I would read Catching Fire over dinner then switch to the video game. However, Catching Fire caught me up and I ended up reading too far. If I read any more, I wouldn't have enough to tide me over for my time on the exercise bike tomorrow morning. So I switched over to Batman. As the game started it asked me if I wanted to download the free content I was entitled to having bought the game new. I agreed and that was the end of my attempts to play Batman. Right now, after having been going for around 40 minutes, it is at 59%. I suppose I could attempt to play the game, but at this time I'd risk losing the hard won progress. So, here I am writing a blog post.
In other news, I went to a game night at a local coffee shop yesterday night. It was a good deal of fun and I got to learn the game 7 Wonders, which is a pretty cool game. There seems to be a good crowd of pretty normal guys and a few girls that get together to play each week. It's put on by Board Now Games. Seems like fertile ground for making a few friends in the area. I will definitely be going back.
And we've made it to 71%. Ugh.
My compromise would be that I would read Catching Fire over dinner then switch to the video game. However, Catching Fire caught me up and I ended up reading too far. If I read any more, I wouldn't have enough to tide me over for my time on the exercise bike tomorrow morning. So I switched over to Batman. As the game started it asked me if I wanted to download the free content I was entitled to having bought the game new. I agreed and that was the end of my attempts to play Batman. Right now, after having been going for around 40 minutes, it is at 59%. I suppose I could attempt to play the game, but at this time I'd risk losing the hard won progress. So, here I am writing a blog post.
In other news, I went to a game night at a local coffee shop yesterday night. It was a good deal of fun and I got to learn the game 7 Wonders, which is a pretty cool game. There seems to be a good crowd of pretty normal guys and a few girls that get together to play each week. It's put on by Board Now Games. Seems like fertile ground for making a few friends in the area. I will definitely be going back.
And we've made it to 71%. Ugh.
Sunday, October 9, 2011
When a Plan Comes Together
I had big plans for Saturday, and for once they came together. I was able to go over to my father-in-law's and get my check engine light turned off by his code reader. That was necessary so I could go get my emissions tested, which I did with no delay or problems. That was necessary so I could renew my tags for my Mazda, Daria. Once that was done I did a mess of grocery shopping, buying lots of vitamins. That was necessary because I needed to get a flu shot, and if I bought $25 worth of vitamins I could get a free flu shot. That all went according to plan. As a surprise bonus, I got an email while shopping that let me know I had a book on hold at the library. Since the library was right across the street from the grocery store, that was another triumph.
Jen made fried apples and cheese for lunch, which was a new culinary experience for me, but delightful. We used apples from our friends John and Jen and I turned the rest into an apple pecan pie. We'll be enjoying that with Jen's parents tonight. I also went out and harvested the remaining tomatoes, since it did snow a little bit yesterday and the temperatures were below freezing during the night. I pulled off quite a few of them.
The only two things that didn't turn out so hot yesterday were some pasta and my constitution. In trying to use up the rest of the tomatoes, I made a tomato sauce recipe from smitten kitchen. I haven't had a bad recipe from there, but this one bombed. It calls for adding a bunch of water at the end, which made the sauce soupy and bland. I imagine it would have been all right without it. However, at this point it felt like a blow because I was also starting to feel rather nauseous and achey. I proceeded to have a pretty good set of flu symptoms take hold that left me shivering on the couch. I guess that flu shot may have been a bit too potent. Fortunately, I had The Hunger Games to keep me company under a very warm blanket. The book is grim, but good. It definitely moves at a brisk pace that makes it addictive. I read 2/3 last night and finished it up today. I wanted to read the series before the movie comes out next year. I also had thought about the trilogy as a gift for nephews, but after reading the first book, it's clear I need to wait until they're older. The book lays some parallels to how we in the first world live at the expense of those in the third world, but the author is not heavy handed about it, which I appreciate. I've already put the second book of the trilogy on hold.
Fortunately for me, after a night of laying around reading followed by good sleep and some ibuprofen, I feel just fine today. This is also good, because this was one of the Sundays that we led house church. We did a little experiment and did a hike together as a church group with scripture to read along the way. I dunno how effective it was in practicing solitude on a busy trail, but we had a good time with our church family and it was a beautiful day for a hike following yesterday's solid day of rain. Better yet, we followed it up with frozen yogurt. Score!
Jen made fried apples and cheese for lunch, which was a new culinary experience for me, but delightful. We used apples from our friends John and Jen and I turned the rest into an apple pecan pie. We'll be enjoying that with Jen's parents tonight. I also went out and harvested the remaining tomatoes, since it did snow a little bit yesterday and the temperatures were below freezing during the night. I pulled off quite a few of them.The only two things that didn't turn out so hot yesterday were some pasta and my constitution. In trying to use up the rest of the tomatoes, I made a tomato sauce recipe from smitten kitchen. I haven't had a bad recipe from there, but this one bombed. It calls for adding a bunch of water at the end, which made the sauce soupy and bland. I imagine it would have been all right without it. However, at this point it felt like a blow because I was also starting to feel rather nauseous and achey. I proceeded to have a pretty good set of flu symptoms take hold that left me shivering on the couch. I guess that flu shot may have been a bit too potent. Fortunately, I had The Hunger Games to keep me company under a very warm blanket. The book is grim, but good. It definitely moves at a brisk pace that makes it addictive. I read 2/3 last night and finished it up today. I wanted to read the series before the movie comes out next year. I also had thought about the trilogy as a gift for nephews, but after reading the first book, it's clear I need to wait until they're older. The book lays some parallels to how we in the first world live at the expense of those in the third world, but the author is not heavy handed about it, which I appreciate. I've already put the second book of the trilogy on hold.
Fortunately for me, after a night of laying around reading followed by good sleep and some ibuprofen, I feel just fine today. This is also good, because this was one of the Sundays that we led house church. We did a little experiment and did a hike together as a church group with scripture to read along the way. I dunno how effective it was in practicing solitude on a busy trail, but we had a good time with our church family and it was a beautiful day for a hike following yesterday's solid day of rain. Better yet, we followed it up with frozen yogurt. Score!
Saturday, October 1, 2011
Aspens and Burnt Pizza
We drove through the rest of the park and then caught Highway 72 over to Nederland, where, unfortunately, we stopped for lunch. I say unfortunately, because the lunch there set my mood for rest of the day in a negative way. We went to Backcountry Pizza. After sitting for a bit and seeing no waitstaff, we ordered at the counter. Okay, that's fine. I asked for a small deep dish supreme After a long while, Gavin and Sarah, who ordered their pizza after us, got their pizza, which was a bit burnt on the crust. We figured that our pizza, being deep dish as well as made in laid back Nederland, would take a little bit longer. Time ticked by and Gavin and Sarah were mostly done with their pizza. I got up and got a refill and inquired about our pizza. I was told then that deep dish could take 30-45 minutes. That would have been handy to know when we ordered. Shortly thereafter, the restaurant was filled with a smoky haze, as something in the oven was burning. We waited and waited. Gavin and Sarah finished their pizza. After what seemed like an hour since ordering, and about the point I was ready to go cancel our order and just grab some slices, they called our name and presented us with a pizza whose crust was quite burnt. The guy at the counter apologized quickly, but at this point I just wanted to get out of there. The pizza wasn't bad, and would have been good if not for the burnt crust and hour long wait.
I suspect they either burnt the pizza or forgot about us. The deep dish isn't as thick of a crust as the normal one, and certainly shouldn't take 45 minutes to cook, let alone the hour ours theoretically was in there. Whatever the case, I won't be returning there.
That set the tone for the rest of the day as I felt hurried, trying to make up the time I'd lost to the incompetent cook. Finally, around 9, I'm finally feeling like I'm out from the funk. I'm looking forward to having some free time tomorrow to make up for it. I see me, my deck, and some alcohol in the near future. Oh, and the pictures from last weekend and this weekend are up as well. I've got them in a Picasa gallery for your viewing pleasure.
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