Camping Trips - maybe THE best camping trip

Tony and I have definitely had some fun camping trips....in fact I think they have all been fun. Even the night that Jen & Adam, Heather & Gary, and me and Tony camped out at the tree farm and FROZE (especially Gary:)). The night we spent at Tony's parents land and Tony's friend Davis drove up way late and scared the crap out us......too many fun nights to mention here.

But the night that is probably the most memorable was one we shared with Kelly, Athena, Josh, Patrick, Jenni and Rob at Three Rivers in New Mexico. I can't even think about the night without cracking up. It started off with Coors Tall boys and ended with Carlos Rossi wine....who wouldn't have a good time? :) There were also some Bloody Mary's in the middle of all of that.

When we were taking turns dancing around the picnic table Kelly fell down, got back up, and kept dancing. I don't think he ever missed a beat. Then playing frisbee he fell into a cactus but said he was fine.

Ok, disclaimer, this part is gross: but I got sick in the middle of the night and barely made it out of the tent...and onto my shoes. Ewww!! Then I stumbled over to the water jug and saw a bear standing right next to Kelly's tent, so I ever so quietly walked back to the tent. Well, the next morning I was talking about this and everyone said I must have been seeing things, and I figured that was not too far fetched. Then Patrick woke up from sleeping on a picnic table and said "Guys, last night there was a black bear in our camp - I saw it but couldn't do anything about it". Meanwhile he had some purple stain all the way down the front of his shirt. Awesome....

When Kelly got up his foot was HUGE and had cactus needles all over it! He could barely even walk. Well, come to find out his foot was broken - during our Rossi Possi dance session when he fell down it was a lot worse than anyone thought!

You would think with all that happened it wouldn't be such a great memory - but it was - it was a night to remember.  Here are some pictures from that night.

My Weeks End

Not too much happened this week so I just thought I'd post the low down of our regular every day goings.

Tony started school and his week went really well. His classes seem like they are going to be pretty good - and a couple of them sound really interesting. He has to read the book Botony of Desire and it actually looks like a good book - he's already began reading it. It's a very interesting way to look at our interaction with plants, or plants interactions with us. It's still so exciting that he is doing this. Oh, the places he'll go.

I've still been sticking to my running plan, some days its more, some days its less. But either way I've stuck to it now since Jan. 1 and I'm already feeling stronger.Today was the longest one yet. Granted, I'm more of a jogger than a runner, but it feels really good to get back into it.

So I've been wanting to take yoga classes again, since we quit the gym. There is a place here in Parker (it's a franchise) called CorePower. But it's pricey! So I was really trying to weigh whether or not it would be worth it to join since I'll only be able to go a few times a week. Then what pops up in my inbox from Groupon??? A $49/month coupon to CorePower!! So I hoped on that and finally got something good out of Groupon. Now at least I'll get to check it out for a reasonable price. They have hot yoga, which is something I've always wanted to try.

I tried a new recipe last night and it turned out great - it's definitely going on our rotation. I was talking to Marla the other night and we were talking about what a great recipe book Savoring the Southwest is so I decided to find one out of there. (This is a recipe book from my hometown. It is illustrated with art work from artists in New Mexico throughout the book. As much as I love to read recipe books, this one takes the cake because of the beautiful drawings and paintings scattered it in.)
Here it is along with my substitutions:

Southwest Fettucine
1/4 cup butter (I used Smart Balance)
1 cup sliced Canadian bacon (or you could use ham)
1 jar (8 ounces) roasted sweet red peppers, drained and diced
1 package (10 ounces) frozen green peas
1 cup heavy cream (I used fat free half and half)
1/2 tsp. salt (I used course)
1/4 tsp. pepper
1 pd. fettucine noodles
1 cup grated parmesan cheese
2 tsp. minced garlic (I added this because we are fans of garlic but the recipe does not call for it)

Melt butter in large skillet. Add bacon and cook for 1 minute. Add peppers and peas, cook for 1 minute to coat with butter. Stir in cream, salt and pepper. Bring to boil; lower heat; simmer, stirring occasionally, until sauce thickens slightly, about 3 minutes. Remove sauce from heat; reserve while cooking pasta. Cook and drain pasta; return to pot. Add sauce and cheese; toss over low heat until mixture is well blended and heated thoroughly.

This was a really quick meal and Tony and I were both big fans!

Bon Appetit!

Speaking of food - I started a new book this week - My Life in France. It's written by Julia Child (with the help of her nephew). So far so good! I think I am equally facinated with cooking and with France. Since she did both I am a fan of hers. I did watch Julie and Julia in the theater and thought it was great! I wasn't as impressed the second time I watched it when it came out to video though. I think it has something to do with the fact that I googled Julie Powell and she's not at all what I thought her to be from the movie. I was just really disappointed with an interview I read with her. Anywho - I'll let you know how the book goes!

Now we are off to my favorite place - the Public Library! After that we might try to get in some Geo Caching.

Have a good weekend!

Super Bowl's Past

When I was in high school we always had a super bowl party at our house. My mom and dad would graciously open up their home to a bunch of kids from our youth group. We'd buy pizza and coke and snacks and semi watch the game in between talking and playing. It is such a great memory to have and I'm so glad my parents were always ok with a bunch of dumb teenagers invading their house.

Another great memory is the super bowl where Janet Jackson exposed (ewwww) herself. Everyone was in the kitchen at Jen's and no one was sitting there with me to see it! Of course I was the only nerd watching Janet Jackson and Justin Timberlake...but still! That was a great party - good friends, food and booze. It was one of many souree's over on Capri Rd. We found some random video tape the other day that we had taken over at a BBQ on Capri and it brought back such funny memories. If I could ever figure out how to load it onto the computer I could post some of it so that you could get a chuckle too.

Today we are having some friends over to watch the game and snack. Another year...more memories to be made.

March Madness

Jen and Adam

We've been trying to make the most of what time we have left here. We have a few things on the list that we want to do/see. But most importantly we want to hang out with our friends.
We went out Friday night with Jen and Adam. We went down to Fell's Point for dinner and drinks, somewhere we haven't ever been in the evening. We go to Fell's a lot, to Whole Foods, our fav. brunch restaurant, to get our hair cut, but never to dinner or to the bars.....and it was great! We had so much fun, the restaurant, The Waterfront Hotel, had great food and a nice ambiance, and best of all, great friends. Then we went down to The Horse You Rode In On. They had live music, which is something we never see at the bars in Federal Hill. The music added a lot to the experience. It reminded me of El Patio in Las Cruces, and of High Desert. Oh, good times...the Bloody Mary's at El Patio, the nachos at High Desert.

Then Saturday we went exploring another new place, Historic Ellicot City. I wish we would have found this place sooner! My mom and sister would have loved it! Bunches of little shops and antique stores. Amy would have founds lots of treasures. We went with David and Robin and then ate dinner down there. It was only about 15 or 20 minutes from our house.

Today is kind of a sad day though...my family always had a big get together on Easter. Me and Amy would get a new Easter dress, and a hat when we were little, we'd go to church (this wasn't a once a year type thing, we went to church every Sunday morning, Sunday night....usually Wednesday nights - completely opposite of the heathen I am now), then we'd go over to my grandma's house, or my aunt's house, hunt Easter eggs with my cousins, eat dinner...such beautiful memories. And today I think back on those memories, and I'm sad that I'm not there today, to make more. Sometimes I get so homesick and I am so very grateful that we are moving closer, close enough that we can drive home for Easter.

I still haven't gotten a firm move date though. I've turned in all my paperwork, now I'm just waiting for everything to be approved. Hopefully I'll hear something in the next two weeks. Meanwhile our next few weeks are packed with friends, food, and drinks. Oh, and baseball games. Gotta get as many of those in while we can. Walking to the stadium is one of the many things I'm going to miss about living in the city. We are so blessed that we were able to live here at this time in our lives, while we were able enjoyed it so much.

Christmas

Christmas was good to us this year. We stayed in Maryland....it was hard and we missed our family, but we made the most of it. Went to Christmas Eve service, ate a lot, opened presents and played with Kirby. We made out like bandits! We had asked for camping gear this year. We got a Kelty tent, only 4 pds. - perfect for our big trip this summer, dried food, Granite Gear sink and water carrier, a compass, a compression bag, and a GPS system. It's so much fun - we've already been trying to go out and GeoCach.


Hopefully next year we will get to be with family over the Holidays, but despite staying here, we had a wonderful Christmas.

Kirby update and other things

Kirby had his first play date with Jen's dogs, Bailey and Winston. I think Bailey intimidated him, but he played really well with Winston (the Bichon - sorry if that's spelled wrong). We went up to Sykesville to Jen's house and he did well in the car ride too.

Kirby is 12 weeks old now. He's grown a lot in the two weeks that we have had him. He seems to be learning quickly and he's now gone to the back door all on his own twice. I'm still getting frustrated pretty easily, but Tony has endless patience and is doing really well with him.

Me and Renata and Cherie

That's right, I broke 100. First time ever!!!!

We went out to dinner on Saturday night with some friends to celebrate Renata's birthday. Then we all went bowling....where there were no awkward encounters with anyone whom I have not had any contact with since June due to some unfortunate turn of events. I really hope that she did not get escorted out of the bowling alley job as well....sean, was that too soon?

Little Italy

Tonight Tony and I went to a film in Little Italy. Tonight 'Rocky Balboa' was showing! It was an open air film, they put up a white wall on the side of a resturant and the image comes from the top window of this guys house. So we went over, got a really good pizza, watched some men play Bocci Ball, and then saw the film. We had a really nice time and here's a couple of pics!

Baltimore Weekend

This weekend Tony and I went down to the harbor to go to B&N and then hang out by the water. The weather was amazing - as you can tell by the happy look on Tony's face!