Got him in Green!

Jeremy tried to walk out the door today wearing a WHITE shirt! Not on this day buddy! =) I had him march straight back into the closet and get a green one...this was after lots of phrases like, "I know you aren't Irish, but you're married to someone who is 50% Irish, so you still have to wear green!" Oh, followed up by.. "Someday you are going to have kids who are 25% Irish and what will you tell them then??!"

Anyways, turns out they even took a photo of everyone in green over at Rackspace today - see, now if he hadn't been wearing green he couldn't have been a part of this photo! Which is exactly the reason I think he tried not to wear it in the first place!

Happy St. Patty's Day!!

In Spanish Please!

So my mom asked me to pick up some groceries on my way home today... bananas and chocolate milk. (F.Y.I. Chocolate milk is supposedly the recovery drink of choice for runners - better than Gatorade, etc. - perfect for after my 10-mile run tomorrow).

Back to the grocery store... I have two items, so I scan the open registers and spot a self checkout. Having been a child of the 80's I feel confident around technology... and can even out-Google Jeremy on any search you give us (Yes, it kills him that my Google skills are superior to him - maybe someday I will teach him my wise ways).

So I head over to the self-checkout...hit the "English" button and I am promptly hit with a Spanish voice and Spanish instructions. Can't say I was too excited to complete my transaction in a foreign language that I've never studied.

I guess I paused too long because even more Spanish is being spouted out at me and even louder than before! I look pleadingly at the main cashier, but then decide he is giving me some distance because he too does not speak Spanish, and probably thinks he can't help me because I must speak Spanish....since that is the language I chose!

You can see where this is going... I finally scan the milk and some how scan the bananas, but then couldn't quite figure out how to pay and was stuck again with the Spanish-speaking computer voice repeating some kind of "helpful phrase" in a language I don't speak.

Moral of the story, got out of there with my two items but decided I am not as technically savvy as I once thought! =) So if you too are looking for a challenge next time you're at the grocery store, just go for that "Spanish" button!

Green M&M's Don't Count

So Jer is on day 9 of 16 of being a bachelor. The day I left him all he had in the refrigerator was an XL pizza and some leftover cheesy bread from watching the All Star game. I know that if I was really helpful I would have stocked the fridge with food for the next 2-weeks, but, he's informed me that he likes to try out new restaurants when I leave town, so I let it go.

I will now provide you with a list of what this boy has eaten in the past 9 days:
- pizza
- hamburger (with french fries)
- burrito
- pizza
- chocolate chip muffins

I told him that his challenge for this week was to eat something green, and no, green M&M's did not count. Seriously, the kid is lacking some major nutrients... I wonder if he even knows how to identify broccoli any more... though he is trying to convince me that the fries on the side of his hamburger sufficed for a vegetable!

Is this what happens to all bachelors?

So, if anyone in SA is reading this post, please try to pass off to Jeremy an apple, banana, or any other food item that is grown and not produced by McDonald's or Nabisco! =)

Shrimp Paesano

Jeremy and I had our first real date at Paesanos here in San Antonio....could that be over 9 years ago... eeek! We still love to go there for a nice "date night" even if Jeremy hates the term! =) It is a nice place to relax and we always go to the 1604 location and get an outside table by the koi pond... and get some good grub!

My favorite thing to order there is their signature dish, Shrimp Paesano.

So we decided to try making it on our own version of it last night...

Jeremy is convinced that I cannot cook without destroying the kitchen... he may be on to something!

But as everything started to come together, I actually was impressed with our shrimp knockoff capabilities! (We can't get sued for this, right?)

Okay, so maybe not Food & Wine magazine presentation style, but we both were impressed! Here's the recipe for those adventurous ones out there!

This recipe is to serve 2 but can easily be doubled again and again to serve as many as you need.

1 Pound jumbo shrimp, peeled, cleaned & deveined
1 C. approx., half & half
Flour for dredging
Salt & Pepper to taste
2 T. olive oil
1 stick of butter, divided
1 egg yolk
½ of a lemon, juiced
2 cloves garlic, minced
Parsley & chives for garnish

SHRIMP PREP:
Soak shrimp in half and half for about 10 minutes. Drain and dredge in flour seasoned with salt and pepper. Saute in oil over medium heat for 5 minutes. Do not turn. Remove and place in oven proof baking dish in preheated oven on broil.
While shrimp is in oven, prepare sauce.

SAUCE PREP:
Combine egg yolk and lemon juice in heavy saucepan. And ½ stick of butter and melt over low-med heat. Add garlic and remaining ½ stick of butter. Continue to cook until thickened.
Remove shrimp from oven. Pour sauce over shrimp and garnish with parsley and chives to serve.

Still Celebrating Christmas

So we are still celebrating Christmas here...well, at least still eating Christmas goodies. Jer bought this Rice Krispie Holiday House kit and we didn't find any time to do it before the holidays. So this weekend sounded like the perfect time!
I guess this shows I have little to no creativity, because when I read "Holiday House" that is exactly what I created....

While Jeremy opted for house turned person...with a big fro!

I actually think he inadvertently created Harry Potter....do you see the similarity? ...minus the gum drop beard of course! =)

This is only extra hilarious to me because Jeremy would rather eat raw broccoli than read a Harry Potter book!

Christmas in Dallas

Jer and I arrived in Dallas around midnight on the 23rd. The good news, we didn't hit too much traffic on the way up...the bad news...it was crazy foggy on the drive up.

We had about 1/2 a day to run around on the 24th to get some last minute Christmas gifts and then we headed over to Jesuit for the Christmas Eve Mass. Here, Mom and I are stylin' and ready to go...
And it was just about this time that we saw what the boys were wearing...all THREE of them were in Argyle sweaters...almost to the point that it looked like we had coordinated it. Jeremy was not too happy to wear Argyle in the first place...so I don't think he was too impressed to be one of the 3 Musketeers for Christmas either! =)

But, I have to admit, it did make a pretty nice looking Christmas photo!

Once we got back from church it was time for a nice little meal. We were having Thanksgiving dinner at Christmas....and Jeremy was in charge of the ambiance...
Then we opened the traditional one Christmas eve gift for each person. Ryan and I have an ornament tradition...and each year we buy a "family" ornament to commemorate the year. Yes folks, we are those people who buy the ornaments from those carts in the mall with the clay characters....someone has to! =)
Then the last-minute wrapping commenced. The whole family is wrapping presents in the same room, but we put up barriers so you can't see what everyone else is wrapping. Jeremy was helping me come up with good clues to write on the gifts... I think he helped on one... and then he just stole my hat and laid down to watch! =)

Then we woke on Christmas morning and the unwrapping began... we didn't finish until 3:00pm! Here's Dad with a framed article from his football days!

And then, the best gift ever... and believe me this will take an entire blog entry to explain at some time... but I gave Jeremy a "Troll on a Roll!" More on this later!

And finally...after all of that hard work we needed to relax... a hot tub was in order!

We took a great walk over at White Rock Lake on Sunday!

And I tried to do push-ups on the kitchen counter...you know, all those normal holiday activities!

Finally it ended with a new family board game... Jenga. Jer found this new version because I think he was going to go crazy if we made him play the same old one again! The family turned out to be smarter than the game - and I think we defeated the maximum number of hanging blocks by the second game!

All in all! It was a great time in Dallas - and we're looking forward to New Years... 2010 here we come!

Thanks for Nothing!

So I went to my mailbox the other day and saw that I had received a postcard from the "Muddy Buddy" organization....the two races that Molly and I participated in this year. At first glance I thought, "Wow, why did they send me a photo of these 13 year old competitors?" It would have been a lot more powerful if they had sent me a postcard with Molly and I going across the finish line.

Then I took a closer look....yes, in fact they did send me a photo of Molly and I crossing the finish line...we are the two goobers behind the people in the white t-shirts. It is kind of like a "Where's Waldo" but looking for the girls in hot pink covered in mud!
Needless to say I do have this on my refrigerator...even if we are only "background" in the photo!" =)