Two years ago today

Today in 2007 I had my first date with K. Who would've thought on that day that we had so many days to look forward to together? We've had so many wonderful moments together and I couldn't ask for a better girlfriend. I really do love her with all my heart.

We're playing it low key today because we were out playing cards with our mutual friend. We first all went out to dinner at a ma and pa style Mexican restaurant. The poor lady who served us really did not know English and we had the hardest time ordering. But the food was pretty good. So it was worth it. We then went over to our friend's house to eat pie! I don't remember what it was called but it had graham cracker crust, dulce de leche and banana slice filling and it was topped with whipped cream infused with coffee and sprinked with dark chocolate shavings. It was delicious. We then made up a card game and had some good conversations. I even got to try some homemade meede. It's wine made out of honey. Time flew by and next thing we knew it was waaay past 2AM So today we're relaxing. We're ordering pizza and watching the movie Traitor. It'll be great, I'm sure.

My Birthday

Was yesterday! And I'd like to thank everybody who made it special. I really can't say it enough that it really means so much to me. My family came out to visit me and they celebrated it on Saturday with me. Along with K, they made a super fun pirate party with homemade pizza. It was really unexpected and I really was taken back by how much they did for me to make me feel special :) Dino, our pet stuffed T-Rex got a friend named Carrot Nose who is a Triceratops. They've already been getting along great. ...and getting into mischief! Those crazy imaginary Dinosaur personalities sure are colorful! I also got an Ipod nano, which I really needed for working out. My wireless bluetooth headsets kept breaking so I needed another alternative to my cell phone MP3 player. K got me a toaster and a Blu-Ray movie. The toaster works great and it was just what I needed!

On Sunday K's family integrated me into their clam chowder dinner and they even did an impromptu birthday song around a dump cake. It was a pretty fun cake. It was loaded with cherries, pineapples, butter and coconut! What a good weekend I had!

Merry Christmas!

I wish you all a Merry Christmas and I hope that you have a fun filled day. Don't forget to overeat and be thankful for all that you really have! They really should just call Christmas Thanksgiving II!

Sushi Station

Yesterday K and I went to this Sushi restaurant called Sushi Station. It was a fun dining experience for sure! Most of the sushi rotated around the restaurant on an enclosed conveyer belt. And when you want some sushi, you just open the door and grab the one you want! They had some fun dessert options too. We tried these water dumplings filled with bean paste. They were so juicy feeling and delicious. We had so much sushi and other good stuff like tempura vegetables and green tea, it was great! MMM sushi!

Thanksgiving

I finally moved into my house last weekend and besides the sewage pump leaking into the front yard, everything is just peachy! My family came over to visit and we all worked in our own way to help set up my house. I did a decent amount of landscaping before the snow hit so I'm pretty happy about that. My mom sewed me some curtains. It took her so long and she worked so hard on them I really appreciate that. My dad helped out all around and made sure we were all adequately fed. And my sister she did just about as much manual labor as I did!

I got AT&T U-Verse phone, cable, and internet the Thursday before thanksgiving and it was down almost every day for almost every reason apparently. They say 3300 feet from the hub is right at the threshold for the service. So I hope it will stay up this time! I need to remember to call them and get refunded for the time my service was down. There's no sense in paying for service which I didn't have.

I hung out with K most of the week so that was a lot of fun. We celebrated Thanksgiving with both families. All the food was delicious. I made sure to eat a big piece of all 3 desserts. There was chocolate cheese cake, pumpkin banana torte, and pecan pie. All made with tested recipies. So I loved all three! I ate way too much the last 4 days or so, but oh man was it great spending so much time with family. I really am thankful for all I have.

house update!

Well I can finally say that my house is close to being ready to live in! K and I have been starting to unpack things and clean up a bit. So hopefully by thanksgiving the house will be fully occupiable! But that's not the big update. After much fighting, I finally have a front porch being put up. It's not much, but it definitely helps the front curb appeal. Now It looks like a country farm house or cottage or something :) I think that's pretty marketable in such a scenic area, well I'd hope! The picture does not show the end product of the porch. The end product will have siding, and shingles of course! And the columns will be white aluminum.

To My Buddy

To my buddy,

You are the most wonderful girlfriend a guy could ever ask for. Every day I am happier to be with you, or so it feels. You do so many things that make me happy and I can't even begin to list them all. But these two little heart shaped cakes that you made just for me really show just how much you think about me and how you try to make me happy in every aspect of my life. You do little things like this without even thinking twice or with the slightest ulterior motive. You do it because you love me. Well I love you too.

This is probably about the sappiest thing I've ever wrote. But really I just have to say something. You make me so happy; all of the time. I can't wait for all the other happy moments in our lives together, or maybe I can because I couldn't be any happier than I am today.

More of my life

Well I ended up going to Busse Woods again to take advantage of the beautiful fall colors. I got quite a few good shots off too! One thing that was annoying is when K and I found a tree we wanted to take photographs under, a minute or so later an older couple with an SLR and a point and shoot stood near the tree looking like they were going to photograph it. We were there for no more than 5 or so minutes. And the old man blurts out "we're losing our light!" Nothing corteous, nothing subtle. Just blunt and rude. Apparently we were at the only tree in the whole gosh darn park and this guy couldn't fathom taking a picture of another tree! I didn't put up a fight because I had gotten off several shots already and the sun had fallen behind a tall building in the distance. I kind of felt happy that they actually did lose their light because of how rude the guy was! But really, it was a very beautiful tree.

My house is getting even closer to being completed. It'll be any day now. I'm sure! I've been saying that for the past couple months, but one of these days I'll find myself telling the truth and I'll actually move in. Although I have my doubts sometimes :)

All in good fun

Last weekend K and I went to a pumpkin farm and browsed all of the fresh produce. Most of it actually wasn't overpriced surprisingly. For example, you could get a whole spaghetti squash for $1.29. But there were of course the ridiculously overpriced items such as the $10 gourmet chocolate covered apples... There were a lot of fun sights like camels and some pretty crazy squash for sale. It was so packed there I felt like I was in a sea of people. But I loved it.

This week K and I baked a cold oven pound cake from the America's Test Kitchen "Lost Recipes" cookbook. I swear every single one of those desserts are the best I have ever had. The pound cake had a thick flaky crust on top due to starting the baking without preheating the oven and the cake was just perfectly moist! We brought slices into work because we couldn't possibly manage to eat that much cake by ourselves. Everybody loved it. My coworkers think I am some baking genius or something... Awhile back we made This thing called "Peach Puzzle" which was like a superior peach cobbler, if you even want to call it that. You basically bake whole peaches sitting in a sweet biscuit dough with brown sugar and butter and eat it warm. It was so good that I will want to make it again as soon as peaches are in season again. If anybody is ever around K or I during peach season, you absolutely have to request it!

Peach Puzzle

This weekend we went to a forest preserve and walked around. I saw a family getting portraits taken at dusk with all the fall colors and it inspired me. I think I'm going to go back tomorrow (today) with K and take some glamour shots. I really have to remember to buy a reflector and a stand online, because the local camera shops charge an arm and a leg for them! But anyway, back to the weekend. We drove around and got menus at many of the restaurant's around K's place and I ended up getting hungry and ordering the 3-meat combo at Sweet Baby Ray's. I had never eaten there before and it was pretty good for a chain. The ribs had a delicious rub on them that reminded me of the kind that was on this special order cajun meat that my dad used to buy for read beans and rice. Oh the memories. The weekend has been so good so far. I can't wait for more!