EastLake

Yesterday was a pretty awesome day. I spent a couple of hours at EastLake 101, an info session for prospective members. At the end of the session I decided to become a member! This is my first time ever officially being a member of a church. I didn't grow up attending church, and actually didn't really have any faith in God until around my freshman year in college. Even though I made a decision at that time to believe in everything Jesus did for us, not much happened after that other than me occasionally reading the bible. Looking back, I guess I didn't know where to start, since I'd never been before, and it was hard to make that first step. I was also happy with the way my life was going on Sundays, with winter guard practices, brunches, hanging out with friends...I was too "busy" for church. It was only when my parents found a Lutheran church in Raleigh in 2006 that I thought maybe, at some point, I should look into this. I went with them a few times, basically whenever I was home, and liked their pastors a lot, but there were some things about their service that didn't completely mesh with my style. But I saw the effect that gaining a church family had on my mom and dad...they were happier, their relationship with God grew exponentially, and it gave them an outlet of resources beyond just having a place to go to serve God. When mom got sick, the church community was there for her until the very end, and still continue to be there for my dad. Words cannot describe how important and amazing that is.

When we moved to Lawrence, I'd hoped that I would find something similar. We churched shopped infrequently, just whenever the mood hit. Found a couple of places that were full of good people, but again the fit didn't seem quite right. We gave up until May, when I happened to see an ad for a new church on Facebook. What caught my eye immediately was "no weird stuff" advertised on EastLake's website. How people communicate with God is a completely individual decision, but I have to admit I am not comfortable with hand raising, judgment, boring (to me) hymns, pomp and circumstance, shouting pastors, speaking in tongues...it's just not me. I was fighting an inner battle of years of being wary of "crazy" Christians and my desire to get to know God. After a couple of services I was hooked. The songs are awesome-no boring hymns, but loud Christian rock where I can sing without worrying someone will hear me. ;) The sermons are even better. Matt is funny, personable, and the topics teach me something every single week and help me take practical steps so I can grow in my faith.

After a couple of times going to EastLake I decided to jump into a growth group. It's like a small group they do 3 times a year, doesn't have to be study related though. Some are just hanging out and having a beer, playing basketball...there's something for everyone. I felt a tug to join a particular group that was studying an Anne Lamott book since she was one of my mom's favorite authors-I'd actually downloaded a book on an ereader that we were going to read together before she passed away. I didn't know why God was telling me to do this particular group, but I just decided to listen. I'm so glad I did. Although the book had some really poignant, funny, memorable passages that helped me really think about some things, what this group gave me was that they helped me deal with my mom's death and talk about it openly. Before EastLake I didn't really have anyone in Lawrence I could talk about it with. My dad and sister are in NC, and we talk on the phone all the time, but sometimes you just need face to face interaction. They might not know it, but they helped me realize something I'd been too scared to admit: that because losing my mom hurt so much, I doubted whether I even wanted to have children because what if someday this happens to me? How could I put my children through the pain I'm feeling? But they asked me if somehow, if my mom would have known in advance what was going to happen to her, if she would have decided not to have children, what did I think she would do? I answered immediately that she would have still had us, because we loved each other so, so much and had so many wonderful happy years together. And I can't put my life on hold because of the possibility of something bad happening. Mom would have wanted me to live each day without regret, fully enjoying my time with my family. And that gives me peace about starting my own family when the time is right. I know not all women are lucky enough to have a mother like I had, and I took that for granted sometimes. But now I can look back on SO many good memories, and even though the grief is still there, I can smile, too.

This is verging on rambling now, but anyway...I'm excited to see what's in store next. Because I do have a church family now...and as much as they help me, I hope I can return the favor.

Update

Update: They were double chocolate cookies with peanut butter filling. AKA: Peanut butter cup cookies. GOOD GOD I LOVE MY HUBBY!!

I would like to partake in your pecan pie

I'm watching Suze Orman-she's about to do the "Can I afford It?" section. I love this show, partly because I'm so curious about the things other people save up (or not, in some cases, but want to buy anyway). Michael is in the kitchen making cookies. What kind? I'm not sure, because he won't tell me! The suspense is killing me. I have a feeling they'll be some kind of oat based cookie, though. Penny is eating her dinner. The way she does this is by picking up a mouthful of food, then dropping it onto the living room rug (which has just been freshly vacuumed-arrrrgh!). She then eats all of the kibble except for the freeze dried carrots, which we've figured out she doesn't like. Picky girl! I guess I could avoid picking up carrot pieces every night by switching her food, but she seems to like all the other parts, and quality dog food is really important to us. So I guess I'm stuck for the time being. :P

This has been a great, relaxing weekend so far. Friday I had a completely girlie night-haven't had that in a while! Michael didn't end up going to his lab event because he had a migraine, poor guy. I picked him up from campus with some tylenol and a pepsi in the seat for him, and he went to bed as soon as we got home. So I got to spend my Friday watching When Harry Met Sally (I'll have what she's having!), painting my nails a really pretty shade of pale pink, eating a deliciously greasy hamburger and fries from 5 Guys, and playing with my new set of hair rollers I got from Target. Erm...I need to practice. But I did get the layers in front of my face to curl pretty nicely. Michael woke up around 11 feeling much better so we snuggled on the couch watching Ocean's Thirteen.

Today I slept in, cleaned the house, bought a couple of new jackets/sweaters for fall from Old Navy, played outside with Penny, and watched Contact with Michael. Gotta love Netflix instant streaming! After dinner we put up all of our fall decorations. I know it's probably too early but I can't help it...it's my favorite season. Just so much going on to be happy about...cooler weather, leaves changing, football games, cinnamon/apple/pumpkin candles and foods, Starbucks pumpkin spice lattes, sweaters, my dad's birthday, my brother in law's birthday, Michael's birthday, MY birthday (Oct & Nov are busy for us!), Thanksgiving...I could go on, but I won't. :)

Tomorrow will be pretty busy and exciting, but more about that tomorrow. ;)

Bad kitty mommy

Last night I had a sudden urge to go through all of my clothes. Maybe I was inspired by the cooler weather we've been having this week...who knows. But I purged the closet of a very full garbage bag's worth of pants and shirts that either no longer fit, were damaged in some way (why I even had those, who knows), or I just plain don't like anymore. Our coat closet is in my office, so I went through that as well to survey what I have that still fits and if I'll need anything for the fall. Somehow when I was doing this, my cat Pandy must have wandered into the coat closet. I accidentally shut her in and she spent the night there. Bad kitty mommy!! Michael woke me up this morning by asking if I had been in the coat closet. When I affirmed that I had, he said there had been a meowing kitty in there this morning. She's totally fine, but I still feel bad about it. Luckily she can be bribed to purr with salmon treats so I gave her a couple after Michael left for class.

I've got the house to myself tonight...Michael has an event with his lab to attend. I'm thinking take out and a chick flick!

Classes for human and puppy

Michael got his teaching assignment-he's teaching the biology lab he wanted, yay! Not sure what it's called but it will cover a lot of what he used to do when he was a research tech at UNC, so he's a lot more comfortable with teaching the subject than the organismal lab he taught last semester. Better hours, too! In the spring he taught from 6-9pm which was a bit of a bummer. This year he's teaching in the morning. Overall I think year #2 is off to a good start!

We decided tonight that Penny will be going to class as well. Specifically, the canine "good citizen" class at the Jayhawk Kennel Club. Tonight's walk reinforced that we need some help when it comes to teaching her leash manners. She just refuses to walk on a loose leash and gets way too jumpy when people come near her. Our technique of stopping until she turns towards us and praising her isn't really working. It's not that she's aggressive...far from it. She's just so friendly and happy to meet people that she thinks everyone is her best friend and of course would want a big kiss from her, which isn't always the case. Part of it is our own doing, in that this summer she did not get walked very much due to the extreme heat and my ankle break. But she's also never really had a chance to learn before, since greyhounds are kept in their kennels pretty much all the time and aren't handled as normal house dogs are until they are retired. So I hope this will be a really fun way for Michael and Penny to hang out together and teach her a few things. Really, if all we get out of this is that she walks better with the leash I will be thrilled. She's already a pretty fab dog...is 100% housebroken, sits nicely for treats, and gives great snuggles. :)

It was nice getting out tonight though-SO many people in the park! We finally caught a break from the heat and I hope it sticks around, I am so ready to be done with 90 + days.

Busker Fest 2010

Every year Lawrence hosts a Busker Fest, a 3 day event comprised of street performers of all kinds-belly dancers, jugglers, magic shows, live music, fire breathing, sword swallowing, comedy acts, and more. We think it's pretty cool that Lawrence is so willing to promote this type of event, which runs through Sunday on Mass St. The community as a whole really gets into it-we saw restaurants offering drink specials, a candy shop was making cotton candy, balloon artists were everywhere, and even though with the heat index it was 100 degrees (again!), we still had a really good time. Here's a pic of one of the acts we saw. They were fire eaters, pretty neat huh?



Our weekend has been really great so far. Michael woke me up with a sweet surprise: an iced vanilla coffee from Dunkin Donuts. My fav! What a nice boy. :) He probably had ulterior motives to get me going with caffeine so that we could start our day, but I'm okay with that if it gets me coffee.

We spent the better part of our afternoon downtown on Mass St. We decided to hit up our favorite burger place, The Burger Stand. I tried their "classic" burger which had vermont cheddar and greens. Super yummy. Michael went with the smoke burger, which we've both had before and love in part because of the smoked gouda, chipotle-pepper ketchup, and bacon. Go try them out if you're in the area, you will not be disappointed.



After watching a magic show, listening to some music, and the fire/sword act, we were in need of A/C and refreshment! Michael wanted to try a new frozen yogurt place that just opened called 3 spoons. They have replaced Yummy's, which recently closed. I was bummed about Yummy's closing but 3 Spoons is a great replacement. Michael tried 2 flavors, the double stuffed cookies and cream, and the york peppermint patty. The best thing about this place is that 1/2 cup is only 100 calories so you can indulge without feeling too guilty. And let me just say, the York peppermint patty is amazing! We highly recommend.



After Michael demolished his froyo, we were only a few stores down from bubble tea so I had to get some. We decided to get that and head home. I had banana bubble tea from Teapouro, which was tasty. Not as good as their strawberry flavor, though.



Now we are at home relaxing and waiting for the KC Chiefs to come on. Well, I am...Michael is taking a nap. :) Guess all the sunshine wore him out! It's funny, I did not care about NFL football at all until we moved here, even though the Carolina Panthers were only 3 hours away in Charlotte. The Chiefs are laughable at football but I don't care, I just like having a hometown team to root for. Go Chiefs!



Guess Tigger is more interested in an afternoon nap as well.

School's in session

KU has started classes for the 2010-2011 school year. This means year #2 for Michael in his grad school program. It's exciting because this is the last year of required classes for him. After this year, he'll probably take classes just to keep his mind alert, but won't have to take them specifically for his degree. This semester he's taking numerical analysis, biochem, his bioinformatics student seminar, and will be teaching undergrad biology labs. I asked him how his classes were today and he said insane. I laughed and reminded him that he was the one who chose these courses. He replied, "My choice in classes makes it seem like I don't like myself." Poor guy! Haha...it will be a challenge but I know he can do it.

Fun news...my cousin went wedding dress shopping in Boston today for the famous Running of the Brides at Filene's Basement. In addition to finding a beautiful gown, she was chosen out of the crowd for a makeover by Carson Kressley from Queer Eye for the Straight Guy and was filmed as a before/after makeover for the Oprah show! How cool is that...supposedly it will air in November or January. I'm sure my aunt will keep the family well informed about it. Just wish I could have been there with them!

Restaurant review-Mia's Italian Restaurant

Michael and I like to go out during the week instead of on weekends for our date nights, often because better deals can be had during the week, and it's a lot less crowded. I have limited tolerance when it comes to waiting for food so the quicker I can get seated, the better. :) We decided to try a brand new restaurant in Lawrence called Mia's, because ever since I saw Eat Pray Love last night I was dying for some pasta! Mia's is in the old Zig & Mac's location and has really transformed the decor. Instead of a sports bar with walls of tvs, Mia's has drawn upon the stereotypical "Italian Restaurant" theme, complete with red checkered tablecloths, pictures of grapes and Italian landscapes on the wall, and Frank Sinatra in the background. I guess I would really call Mia's Italian-American, in the same vein as Paisano's or Olive Garden.

The Good:

The service. Our waitress, Ashley, was outstanding, very attentive without becoming intrusive. We never had to wait for refills on our drinks and she offered recommendations when I was trying to decide between two dishes. She really went out of our way to make sure we were taken care of, and that was great.

The Not-so-Good:

The food. Sadly. I want to love Mia's, I do, but I just can't. We started with mozzarella sticks and a salad. The mozz sticks were very tasty, but how can you really screw up fried cheese? Michael says he could make the same thing at home. The cheese was gooey and it had a nice crunch factor, which I love. Mia's gives you free breadsticks, which were pretty good. I enjoyed the olive oil and vinegar blend for dipping, which was prepared tableside.

The salad, however, was awful. It was just plain iceberg lettuce with one pitiful little tomato slice and 3 olives topped with parmesan cheese. It came with their "house italian vinaigrette" which tasted like just oil...very bland with no spice or anything for flavor. I was expecting a dressing like you would get at Olive Garden and it was just not there at all. The salad could be much improved with a mix of lettuces, perhaps some romaine, more veggies, and some oomph to the dressing.


For entrees, I ordered shrimp with vodka cream sauce in shell pasta. It was decent enough, no complaints really. Michael ordered a KC strip steak, which came with a side of pasta. He chose penne with marinara sauce. He salted his steak because it was so under seasoned. I have *never* seen him do that, ever, to a piece of meat at a restaurant. I guess Mia's intent might have been to mask the lack of flavoring with the accompanying marsala mushroom sauce, but because Michael does not eat mushrooms, he didn't use the sauce. It was cooked to his temperature preference (rare) but didn't have any juices as steaks of that temp normally do, which we thought was a little strange.



Overall:

It was fine. A couple of misses, a few fairly decent things to eat. But the thing is, why settle for just 'okay' when there are restaurants here that make AMAZING Italian food? I'm speaking specifically of The Basil Leaf Cafe, and have heard really good things about 715 and Genovese too. Service was great, but we will not go out of our way to eat here again unless we hear they have revamped their food. Maybe it's growing pains as they get settled (I think they've only been open for a couple of weeks), and if that's the case, I hope it gets better soon, for their longevity's sake.

Iced coffee buzz

Note to fellow coffee addicts: Starbucks has a new version of their instant coffee, Via, that is made for iced coffee. It couldn't be easier. You just dump it into your cup/thermos/container of choice, pour in some water and ice cups, and voila! Yumville. To kick up the tastiness you could add some milk/cream, sugar/splenda, and/or flavorings. I made mine with a little half & half, splenda, and sugar free vanilla syrup. It's $5.95 for a 5 pack but Starbucks usually has coupons right by the register for a dollar off. So this is definitely cheaper than my $3.50 iced chai habit I've been abusing of late since it's been so.incredibly. hot out.

*No, I didn't get paid by Starbucks to pimp their product. :)

Weekend was pretty relaxing. Saturday we went to Lenexa to do an event with MoKan Greyhounds. Lots of hanging out with greyhounds, talking to the public about how awesome they are, letting everyone pet Penny. Next year we're bringing portable fans because again...hot! We saw a demonstration by the Lenexa police department with their K-9 unit which was really neat. The dogs cost $9k each and are taught their commands in dutch. They will instantly stop searching on command if given the cue to stop. That would never happen...if Penny saw a rabbit or a squirrel that would be no stopping her! After we got home, we just hung out and watched Big Bang Theory. Can't wait for new episodes in September! You are missing out if you're not watching that show.

Sunday we started a new series at church, basically about our purpose in life and why we're even here. Pretty deep stuff. But important. I'm excited to hear more...it's a six week series so if you live in or around Lawrence and happened to come across the blog, I definitely invite you to check it out.

After church I went to data entry training! Haha...but really, it will be a good way for me to get involved with EastLake. I'll be entering in the connection cards we all fill out at services so the staff can do their outreach to first/second timers, follow through on decisions to follow Jesus, pray for prayer requests, etc. It was fun getting to know more EastLake ladies! Every single person I've met through EastLake has been a pleasure to get to know.

Tails on the Trail

Today we went and volunteered (or should I say Penny volunteered and we chauffeured her) at Tails on the Trail, an all-breeds dog event in Lenexa. It was a lot of fun! There were 2 other couples volunteering during our shift, and each brought their greyhounds along, so there was a lot of "greyhound-style playing", meaning a lot of sitting and laying down and being lazy and cute. As usual, I snapped pictures! Here's some of my favorites:

This is Brandy! She was in the first shift, so she only was there for a few minutes.

The darker one on the left is Abbie and the lighter on the right is Spencer.

Penny being charming!

Butts!

Spencer taking a nap!

More pictures in my Facebook album!

How do you measure a year in the life?

Tuesday passed by pretty uneventfully for most people, but for me it was a pretty big milestone. On August 10th, 2009, I got on a plane that was one way from Raleigh, NC to Kansas City, MO. From there, my dad and my husband picked up my mom and I, and we started a journey that led us to our new home in Lawrence, KS. We sold or gave away a lot of our furniture so that we could travel easier, so we had to stop at Nebraska Furniture Mart before coming home so we'd have a bed to sleep on that night! My dad and Michael had spent the previous 2 days driving 1100 miles in our Jeep with our two cats because we didn't feel comfortable transporting them on a plane. I remember having a lot of anxiety about this move. So far, it's been the biggest of my life. Even for college, I only went about 40 miles away to Chapel Hill, NC. I mean, I'm even in a different time zone now! Being apart from my family and friends in NC is undoubtedly the hardest part of living in Kansas. Thank God for skype, cell phones, facebook, and planes. Now if only there was a direct flight from KCI to RDU I would really be in business!

We moved here so that Michael could further his career by obtaining a PhD. So for me, this has been a leap of faith for sure-to pick up my roots, from the place I've lived for the past 24 years, to follow my spouse as he goes after the next step. But I'm glad we're here. Before I knew Lawrence, I pictured flatland, nowhere to go, nothing to do, and for the first few weeks here, I didn't know how I was going to meet people. I'm so glad I was wrong about all of that. Through KU, EastLake, MoKan Greyhounds, nd Michael's family that lives here, we have met so many amazing people and done some really fun things, and Lawrence has transitioned from a means to an end to a pretty cool place to live. Here's a quick summary of our first year in Kansas:

-Michael started and completed his first year as a graduate student. He received a 4.0 GPA his first semester, taught a biology lab in the spring, interned at NIH in Maryland over the summer, and is set to begin year #2 next Thursday. He hopes to complete applications for fellowships this fall and will continue to teach undergrad biology labs. Year 2 will be pretty important, as he will have to take his oral exam at the end of the year and pass it in order to continue with the program.

-I started out working part time with the company I'd worked for in NC, helping with a project online. By the end of the year my boss offered me a full time position as a social media manager, taking care of our company's facebook, twitter, and a couple of other websites. This has been the best possible evolution of a job for me. I still get to interact with some of my favorite clients, I get paid to update facebook, share news, blog, and be a part of the social media wave. Working from home may not be for everyone, but I love it.

-We attended KU football games. Our favorite was KU vs. Duke...it was a total unexpected but sweet surprise to see our rival from the ACC out here! Even better that KU kicked their butt. ;)

-Our first Thanksgiving in Kansas where we made everything ourselves. And it turned out great! Michael is a fantastic cook and smoked the turkey on our grill, which was possibly the best turkey I've ever had. It was so nice to have a relaxing holiday where we could do things on our own time and veg out and watch the Thanksgiving parade and the dog show, although we did miss our NC relatives.

-After Thanksgiving we went to the Plaza in Kansas City for the lighting of the plaza lights. It's a big ceremony here, complete with bands playing and fireworks. It was very cold standing outside on Thanksgiving night, but very pretty. We had a blast decorating our house for the holidays and made lots of cinnamon rolls and sugar cookies.

-We narrowly escaped a blizzard on Christmas Eve that hit Lawrence. We were at home in Raleigh where it was 60 degrees! We had a great adventure using the 4 x 4 in our Jeep when we arrived back at the airport to a snow bank of 2 feet in front of our car.

-Speaking of snow, this winter was my first time really driving in it. I'm still a little apprehensive, but it helps knowing that Lawrence is pretty good about getting the roads salted and plowed. It was one of those things where if I didn't suck it up and learn how to use the 4 x 4, I wasn't going to go anywhere all winter because by the time snow finally melted, another batch would be coming.

-In January, we adopted our greyhound, Penny! She has been so much fun and really brightens my life. She is my first dog and has been a real joy. Penny has given us so much love that we are now advocates for greyhound adoption through the group we went through to get Penny. They are the best dogs, seriously! :)

-March was a hard month. I went home for a couple of weeks and basically within those couple of weeks my life changed forever. We went from my mom pushing through her chemo meds, to transitioning to hospice, to her passing away on March 31st. I will say that the outpouring of support my family received has been incredible, and really touching to see how many lives she made better just by being their friend. She inspires me everyday to be a kinder, loving person and really think about the things I do/say and how that will affect me long term. Life is TOO SHORT for petty crap! I just see it differently now. My dad, sister, and I are still struggling without her, but I think as the months go by our bond gets even tighter.

-In April we started the process of trying to find a church home. We went to a few places and met some really lovely, nice people. But I didn't feel a true click until I found EastLake Community Church on Facebook. Church for people who don't "do" church...it's been the best church experience of my life! The sermons are relevant to real life, the pastor, Matt, always weaves in funny stories to keep us entertained, they encourage questions and feedback, and there's nothing weird about it.

-Through EastLake, I found the opportunity to join a growth group, which is a small group that meets every week. My growth group studied Anne Lamott's Traveling Mercies, and the 8 weeks I've spent with these women have been nothing short of amazing. We've been able to have some really deep discussions, but also have fun and have some girl talk, too. Having a safe place to vent about whatever, cry about my mom, and talk about God and how He's working in my life has been a true blessing. I have made some true friends for life from this group!

-In June, right before Michael left for his internship, I fell while taking out the trash and broke my right ankle. Fabulous, right? It really put a damper on my spirit for a little bit, but in hindsight it gave me an opportunity to bond with my sister. She flew out from NC and stayed with me for almost an entire month, helping me clean the house, taking care of Penny, driving me everywhere I needed to go, and providing me with company. This was probably the last time we'll live together like that, and so it was really cool to have that time with her. She's getting ready to start grad school in the mountains of NC so having that sister bonding time meant a lot to me.

-Other little tidbits: Michael and I started a garden and have successfully grown tomatoes, lettuce, herbs, and bell peppers; we've been on barbecue tours of Kansas City and have discovered the amazingness that is burnt ends; we've seen Lawrence's quirkier side with things like Busker Festival, Art in the Park, and even crazy random sightings of a teddy bear walking down 19th St; lots of wonderful local restaurants we've fallen in love with, giving back through volunteer projects with greyhound adoption and EastLake; learning how to make homemade bread; and much more I'm sure I'm forgetting!

So in short, it's been one heck of a year. I'm excited to see what year #2 will bring! So far we've got: membership class at EastLake at the end of August, the Great Greyhound Gathering in September, a Vegas wedding in October, Dad coming out here for my birthday/Thanksgiving, Christmas in Raleigh, and who knows from there!

My Achilles Heel

That would be the fall Yankee Candle catalog, which happened to come today. Fall scents! Cute pumpkin votives! Skeleton tea lights! Haunted house tea warmers! Come to mama. I think it's that signal that cooler days are upon us (even though today it was 101 degrees, ugh) and that means the holiday season isn't too far off. I love, love, love the holidays. The baking, the decorating, spending time with family, shopping, everything that goes with fall, I am excited about. I have very happy memories of going to Yankee Candle at the mall with my mom and sister and spending lots of time there just smelling all the new candles, even though inevitably we'd always get her favorite scents, Macintosh Apple and Autumn Wreath. I think this is probably why perfume and bath product stores don't aggravate my sense of smell like they seem to do most people...I was exposed at a young age.

Yeah, I'm thinking I'm going to have to make an order soon. We're almost out of our current candle anyway, and the evil, evil catalog has scratch and sniff pages. That's just evil. I'm thinking I'll get Candy Corn to try something new, and a Macintosh for mama. That scent is burned into my memory when I think of her. :)

I need more to talk about besides food...

Life goes on here in the Rowland house. Not too much to report, really. We were both pretty busy the past couple of days with work. Michael did get his classes scheduled for the upcoming semester, though. He's taking biochem and numerical analysis. That would kill me, but he's looking forward to it. He won't know which class he's teaching and the time until after classes begin on the 19th. We're hoping for a different class this time. Last spring he taught a biology lab that was about plants and organisms...not his favorite branch of biology.

Tonight we tried a new recipe for dinner...looking ahead a little bit to fall. This was a crock pot recipe and holy wow. So good. It will definitely be going into our rotation. It was worth getting the kitchen all hot to make the bread to go along with it. I don't have an exact recipe, but Michael basically put a kielbasa sausage, lentils, carrots, diced tomatoes, onion, celery, some herbs, and water into the crock pot and set it on low for about 8 hours. It was hearty and delicious! As good as it is now, I bet it will be even better when it's cold outside. You know I took pictures!



I may have had 2 bowls.



Tasty homemade bread from the 5 Minutes a Day cookbook.

One last thing: I've volunteered to run ebay auctions for Mokan greyhound adoption, the group that gave us Penny. Last night I put up a gift certificate for 2 nights in a spa suite in the Sheraton hotel in Toronto, Canada. All of the proceeds from the auction go to Mokan, and right now the bidding is set for $25. Two nights and a VIP certificate for local attractions for that kind of price, AND you're helping out greyhounds looking for their forever home? Can't be beat. If you're looking for a nice, quick getaway, jump on this. The auction ends next Wednesday and the certificate has to be used by Sept 30th, and does NOT include airfare. Here's the link: http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=160464680907&_trksid=p2762.l1259#ht_1001wt_1139

Lunch post

Just a quick post today, as I've got a follow up appointment in a few minutes to get to regarding my inserts for my shoes-I think just to make sure they don't hurt and are fitted properly. Last night Michael grilled chicken on the charcoal grill and we sat outside with Penny, just talking. It was nice. And what an excellent lunch for us today! I stuffed the grilled chicken into a pita along with lettuce, tomato, and homemade tzatziki sauce (he just sort of tasted as he went with greek yogurt, dill, garlic, lemon, and salt...it's supposed to have cucumber but we didn't have any) and MAN! what a yummy sandwich. That with some fresh cantaloupe made for a great lunch today.

Aurora and Stars

First post from little old me here! And it's about geeky stuff!

So tonight a coronal mass ejection hit Earth, a pretty nice sized one too. What's that mean? Aurora borealis, one that can be seen further south than the Arctic Circle. Northern Kansasbarely made it into the visible region. We went north of Lawrence to an old gas station that was pretty much closed (for the night or overall, dunno, but there was very little light),parked the car and saw what we could. At this latitude, it should show up as red glows. We saw a lot of red flashes to the north, I don't think it was heat lightning because it was only in the north.

Anyway I set up my camera with the tripod on a 60 second exposure and took two photos, one towards the horizon and then a fun shot of the stars.

See the red streaks just above the hill in the center and just to the right of the hill? I'm pretty sure that's it! And now, stars!

Pooches and Pork Chops

Ugh, Monday. Even though I don't have to drive anywhere to go to work, I still manage to get "a case of the Mondays" sometimes. Especially when the weekend was so great! Saturday we ran errands, grocery shopped for the week ahead, and made bread (see previous post). Yesterday we went to a picnic for volunteers and adopters for the adoption group that gave us Penny, our greyhound. We had a lot of fun! It was really nice to meet some new people who are just as crazy about their dog as we are, and to see 30 greyhounds at once was really cool. Each one would go around and put their face in your lap for some attention and pets. When one dog got riled up over a sudden movement, they would all rush over and then race around the yard together. Penny even got into the little kiddie pool they'd set up for the dogs at the end, although I think it was because it was so hot out and not an actual desire to get wet. We were outside from around noon to 4pm and thankfully we were in the shade, because it was a hot, hot Kansas day. That continued into today...it hit 100 and with the heat index it felt like 115. NO THANK YOU! The A/C felt the same way and couldn't cool the house below 82 degrees. I will be hitting up a coffee shop tomorrow if it's the same way.

Of course, now that I set up just how hot it is outside...who's nuts enough to fire up the grill for dinner? Uh yeah...that'd be us! But it was worth it. We made pork chops, mashed potatoes, and an afterthought that turned out amazing: bruschetta! Michael grilled a few pieces of the leftover bread we made, and chopped up tomatoes, oregano, basil (all from our garden), garlic, salt, pepper, and olive oil. It was fantastic! So much that I had to take a picture. ;)



Michael took a ton of pictures at the picnic, here's just a couple. There's plenty more on his facebook page.



Penny with her biological brother, Patch. It was so cool to see them together. They ignored each other at first but gradually it was like "Oh yeah, I know you. 'sup bro?" Penny is technically the older one of their litter but Patch has a good 30 pounds on her.



Aw, doggie love. Even though she visited with everyone, she knows who gives her cheeseburgers. ;) In case you're wondering, all the greyhounds wore muzzles just for their own safety, not because any of them are dangerous. It's just that they run so fast, and have thin skin, so even a nip while they're playing could get serious.



"I'm not gettin' in any further than this, so don't get any ideas that bath time will be fun for me now!"

Baking bread

Michael and I got the crazy idea yesterday that we wanted to make bread. I'd had the book Artisan Bread in 5 Minutes a Day for about a month and was waiting for him to get home from DC before we tested it out. I'm happy to report that this bread recipe resulted in a delicious loaf of basic, crusty bready goodness. From the basic 'master recipe' you can make all different kinds of breads so we're looking forward to experimenting. I'm already planning to make sandwich bread, baguettes, and pizza dough. The '5 minutes per day' is a bit of a misnomer but it was SO easy to do and totally worth it. When you make the initial batch, it really does only take about 5 minutes to mix up....just some yeast, lukewarm water, salt, and flour. That has to rise for a couple of hours, then you put it in the fridge. If you're wanting bread that same day (like us, the impatient people we are), it should sit in the fridge for another 3 hours. THEN when you take it out and cut off the portion you want, it sits for another 40 minutes out in the room temperature kitchen before being baked for 30 minutes. We started this around 5 so we weren't finished with our loaf until 12:30 in the morning, but it was SO worth it to have a slice with strawberry jam for breakfast this morning. The recipe makes 4 loaves, so we've got a 2 week window that the dough will be good to make more bread. According to the book, the longer the dough has to mature, the better the bread will be, so that's another plus! But I can totally see us mixing up the dough on weekends to use throughout the week...who wouldn't want to come home to a just baked loaf of bread to have with dinner? All I'd have to do on weeknights would be to shape it into a ball and throw it in the oven...it almost seems like too little work for such a yummy result. If I can make this, anyone can, so if you've ever wanted to make your own bread, I highly recommend this book!





The dough once all the ingredients were mixed up.



Um...late night bread making makes my hubby a little loopy.



After its rest in the fridge, I form the dough into a 1 lb ball.



Before it goes into the oven, we scored it with a knife.



Fresh out of the oven! There's nothing like fresh bread scent...yankee candle's got nothing on this. Mmmm!



Close up once we dug into it this morning. Soft and chewy on the inside, crunchy on the outside...perfect.