Oooooppps! Why communication is key.

So Jer's been a little stressed with work and his physical therapy sessions, so I decided to lighten the load by picking up around the house this weekend. I was thorough! I even found an extra ziplock bag on the counter and put it back in the pantry to use for a later time...and only thought, "Weird, I wonder why there is a ziplock on the counter?"

So on Monday morning I thought I would be the kind wife and take a big slice of the nice home cooked zucchini bread and put it into a ziplock, so that Jer could have a great snack at work. Now you just keep this nice thought in mind for the rest of the story.

Jer is currently having this silicone therapy on his scars, where they put this clear strip of silicone over top of it to help reduce sensitivity, etc. I guess it is pretty expensive stuff because he got it over a week ago, wears it everyday/night, and is supposed to keep that same piece on his leg all the time.

Well this brings us back to the silicone, guess he's been keeping it and the adhesive backing in a ziplock bag for safe keeping.... I think you can see where this is going.

On Monday, he pulls out the nice piece of zucchini bread that I packed for him and notices something strange on top....clear, and sticky, and long. Yep, you guessed it. It was this missing silicone strip he'd been wearing all week and the adhesive backing! Oooooppps! How was I to know?!? =) Needless to say my good intentions didn't get me very far on this one and he's accusing me of trying to poison him. More on this topic later!

Zucchini-what bread?

Today was a nice rainy Sunday, so I decided to bust out my new camera and take some picture of a cooking experiment. We're headed up to Okoboji this coming weekend and I wanted to bring with me something yummy, so I came across a recipe for zucchini bread (click here for a copy of the recipe) with over 938 people reviewing it at 5 out of 5 stars. Who knew zucchini could be so hyped up? So in a push to get Jeremy to eat more green things, and to make sure this recipe was worth bringing to the in-laws, I tested it out:

Purchased necessary ingredients - check!

Gratuitous shopping expedition to Bed, Bath & Beyond
for random cooking tools - check!

Unwrapped Cuisinart wedding gift from July of 2007
for first inaugural use - check!

Mixed all ingredients and succeeded in covering
half the kitchen in batter - check!

Placed loaf pans in oven and experimented with
"sugary crumbly goodness" topping on one of them -
more sugar can't hurt at this point - check!

55-minutes later, as aroma filled the air,
pulled the creations from the oven - check!

Cut up both loaves to determine if all the zucchini talk is worth it...
and Jeremy responds, "Umm, I guess they are pretty good."
*with sheepish-grin*

Okay, is it bad if I was looking for something more than just "pretty good." I mean I poured major love into this cooking experiment. Jeremy turns to me and says, "Maybe if we just add some more butter on top they will taste better!" Well, back to the drawing board for me - I'll have to tweak this recipie a bit before bringing it up to 'Boji on Thursday...more news to come later!

Why can't we have normal mascots?

I would now like to introduce you to "Ballapeno" and "Puffy Taco!" They are two of the mascots for the San Antonio Missions baseball team. I have to admit the little taco guy grows on you - especially since he is wearing green stockings...at least I think it is a guy?

Ballapeno - being followed close by the friar mascot - I kind of wanted to see them battle...is that bad?

Mr. Puffy Taco - looking at him made Jeremy hungry. Still trying to figure out where his eyes are!

Tonight was dollar night, and so Jer and I decided to join all the locals and try to get as many things for a dollar as possible. We focused on the hot dogs, though I'm pretty sure the guy behind us focused on the beers, because, by the 6th inning he was ready to take over for the announcer!

We were in the high-roller's section, right behind the first base dugout - this is one of the few times that I can say I had the most expensive seat in the place, at $9!!

Pre-hot dogs!

We have now moved to the front row, though Jeremy is really paranoid that we might get caught - what's the worst that can happen - he has to go put on the Puffy Taco uniform?

Two down, one to go!

What Jeremy likes to call "Rory-vision"

Fried cheeseburger ball experiment (by: Jeremy)

While Rory was gone for the weekend, I got hungry. I had two options: Hit up my favorite fast-food grease-chain... OR make my own fast-food grease-filled goodness in the comfort of my own home. Never one to embrace the public spotlight, I chose the latter...

Like all good things, I started with a little spice (ahhh... sooooo nice).

Fried some hamburger, mushrooms, green onions, a carrot or two, and jalapeños... sorry, "holla-pee-no's," Mom.

Now that I had a nice meaty mixture of goodness, I knew I should concentrate on the carb. ("mwahahaha!" says Count Carb)

So I got some dough. Rolled into balls. Rolled it flat. Put the Hamburglar (err... hamburger!) inside, added a healthy fist of cheese, and then came a second layer of dough. A quick "hatch" job and my cheesy, burgery, balls were sealed.
Break out the canola oil (we keep this stuff by the barrel in the shed out back) and heat to scalding.
Drop the lil' dumplin's in for a jacuzzi. Pop! Sizzle! Yum!

And there you have it... a fried cheeseburger ball. Of course you couldn't actually eat that without ketchup (I'm not totally unrefined!). So pour on a cup or two and indulge yourself, if the mood strikes.

Overall, I'd consider this experiment to be quite successful for the following three reasons:

1. My belly said "thank you" when I was done.
2. I successfully consumed my fat intake for the day (believe it or not, fat is not covered by my daily Centrum vitamin! what a gyp!)
3. I was able to do all of the cooking and the eating in my boxers.

Everyone needs a waffle maker!

Molly's wedding shower was a big success! Lots of good friends, food, and quizzing Molly about her knowledge of her future husband. I also got a chance to break out my new Nikon D60 camera and take on the role of official photographer....Food & Wine Magazine should be calling me any day for my services!

Here are a few of the photos:Making the awesome champagne raspberry punch (14 bottles for 10 people). Tupperware has never been so much fun!

The great looking meal Julie and Aunt Marian prepared!

A handmade card with tons of Chinese origami stars made by her soon to be niece and sister-in-law (yes she is crying!)

Everyone who attended (minus the photographer).
So 46 days to go... more news to come!

Shhhh, Don't tell Molly!

I'm heading out to my best friend Molly's, bridal shower this weekend! For her gift I made her some custom thank you notes with her own logo and return address labels. I think they turned our pretty cool, sticking with her navy and violet colors. I can't believe we're only 50 days away from her big day!"

Hope she likes them, I mean every girl needs to have her own wedding logo, right!? =) Don't worry Jeremy is totally rolling his eyes on this one! =)

Subliminal Messaging

So this morning I woke up and came out into the living room only to find the ironing board, iron, and a blue wrinkly shirt prominently displayed.

This can only mean one of two things:
1) Jeremy is subliminally trying to have me see the shirt and iron and instantly want to iron it for him.
or....
2) For the first time in the 7 years I've known Jeremy, he is going to iron something!

I'll let you be the judge!

Tarzan and Jane...er sump'n like that!

On Saturday we hit Cypress Valley Canopy Zipline tours and decided to revert back to our childhood, throw caution to the wind, and suspend ourselves a few hundred feet off the ground! =) Here is Jer coming down one of the longer zip lines...but all I could get out of him at the end was, "Yea, that was fun!" Still working on his script for the next time through!

We had quite the motley crew with us on the tour - 7 people in all - and they kept calling me BLW, Broken Leg Wife...since I had set this tour up way back in June as a surprise for Jer's birthday - but we had to cancel when he went in for emergency surgery!

By far the best part was seeing how fast I could go and then how quickly I could stop myself before taking out the guide and the tree on the other end!

Fun was had by all - I'd definitely recommend it! Here's my video below...I had a much better line at the end of my run, "That was awesome!"

Birthday Morning

We started off the morning right with cake and a nice cup of coffee! =) I taught Jer how to make the official "Werner Birthday Cake," and so we figured it was a great way to kick off the celebrations! Lots of great gifts from friends and family and fun cards to read!

We're headed off to go ziplining this afternoon - hopefully no broken legs this time around! =)

I'll see if we can get some pictures in action....more later!

First Year Anniversary

Well, we just celebrated our first year together on July 14th! When we arrived at our hotel room we were greeted with a bottle of champagne and a dish of chocolate covered strawberries! My favorite part was the message scrawled in chocolate, "Happy Anniversary, Mr. & Mrs. Rory!" You know this one is getting framed! =)

I decided to join the world of bloggers because I was so inspired by all of my friend's blogs - in particular Alicia's cracks me up more than anything. While I don't have any small children sleeping outside my room or even any children on the way... at all... I thought it might be fun to keep everyone updated on the fun stuff we are up to!

So here's the first post of hopefully many more!