Wednesday, February 24, 2010

Staring contest


Lola wins!!!
**Doesn't she remind you of the Sphinx?

Tuesday, February 23, 2010

Case and point




Lola has fantastic doggie dental hygiene...



Thursday, February 18, 2010

Crazy Dog Lady

I know this blog started out as a home improvement thing, but it's clearly evolving into a blog about a certain dog whose owners, ok well just one of them, is a tad bit obsessed with her. I promise, we'll get back to the joys of home improvement soon, but honestly, isn't watching Lola explore, play, and learn new tricks way more fun?

Monday, February 15, 2010

Puppy Love

I hope everyone had a great Valentines Day!!!

Mark and I kept it mellow with a nice home-cooked meal. We started out with my favorite cheese fondue. Our dippers consisted of pumpernickel bread, baby carrots and granny smith apples.

I then followed this recipe to make a relatively healthy chicken cordon bleu. I substituted light jarlsburg swiss for the laughing cow cheese. It was absolutely delicious and super easy to make. I paired it with the crash hot potatoes.

Then we enjoyed these customized m&ms for dessert. :)


I also took advantage of the beautiful weather to experiment with Mark's SLR and take some photos of the Lolabear.



It was a fantastic, love-filled day!!!

Friday, February 12, 2010

Pil-OWWW-tes

Mark and I tried pilates for the first time last night. Our dear friend Adrienne has been doing it for quite some time now and after admiring her tone and definition *in as minimally a creepy way as possible* Mark and I finally accepted her referral to her pilates instructor.

...We. Are. Sore. It was a fantastic experience though, and we plan to work it into our really busy workout schedule. Okay, that's a lie. It's not really busy, but we're committing to doing this at least once a week, while peppering in (yeah I just said peppering in...) some cardio and resistance training throughout the week.

Unlike mat pilates, which I've tried on Exercise on Demand before, Linda uses pilates equipment in her studio. We got to experience the reformer... -Am I the only person that hears/says/reads the word "reformer" and wants to bust out in Snow's Informah, you know skibopidoodlie down the laaane, a liki boomboom down? That's just how I roll.

Following our intense pilates lesson, Mark and I welcomed dinner of a South of the Border salad from Stonefire and three Advil. each.

Nobody said it was easy...

Tuesday, February 9, 2010

For the love of potatoes

If you are unfamiliar with The Pioneer Woman, I think it's about time you get real familiar. Tali introduced me to this blog as well as the Tasty Kitchen which is a food community that the Pioneer Woman created. Both are fun to follow, and the recipes, don't get me started! Okay, do get me started...

I tried Ree's recipe for Crash Hot Potatoes yesterday, and MAN! It's like french fries, with none of the guilt and way more flavor. (That's a huge compliment coming from me.)

I switched up the recipe just a smidge because I didn't have the patience to boil the potatoes. I nuked the potatoes instead. I also added a little garlic powder and since I didn't have fresh rosemary on hand, I chopped up the dry variety.

We paired these with some grilled chicken that Mark has perfected *slow and steady is the name of the game* and some corn and peas.

This one gets 5 mitts (that's a Tasty Kitchen two thumbs up) from me and will surely be revisited! SOON!

Monday, February 8, 2010

Doggie floss

Lola had her first puppy training class this Saturday. She's totally a valedictorian in the making. Our homework was to practice "watch me" with her. She's got it down like nobody's business.

In the video, you also get a glimpse of her favorite toy, which I now refer to as "doggie floss". What used to look like this now looks like a mangled ball of thread -and that's how she likes it...

Thrice bitten

I’m sure you’d like me to believe that you have better things to do with your time than read about my bug-bitten finger, but I don’t believe you. Poor Mark has had to listen to me complain about three bug bites I have (2 on my left forearm and one on my right ring finger) all weekend, trying not to laugh when I refer to them as “my mosquito bites,” so I’m going to give him a break. Mark, if you’re reading this, now’s your cue to stop.

All my life I have been the victim of mosquito bites, regardless of the time of year, climate, time of day, or layers of clothing I happen to be wearing. I believe my sister shares this problem, but I may be mistaken. Mark always asks, “how come you’re the only one getting bitten?,” to which I reply *as if I know what I’m talking about,* “I have sweet blood!” I’m pretty confident that I’m getting bitten in my sleep, because I have mad-mosquito-swatting-ninja-skills when I’m conscious…

The most likely cause of these bites can be traced back to our new windows. –By no means that it was their fault; in fact I should actually blame the old ones. Had they not sucked so bad, we wouldn’t have had the need to replace them. When replacing windows, there is an unavoidable period of time where a gaping hole resides in the wall. Whether it is for 30 seconds or 15 minutes, those damn mosquitoes will find their way in, because they obviously smell my sweet blood…

Now as soon as the swelling of my finger goes down, I pray to have no more reminders of the windows that were.

In the meantime, I will continue to dream about the kitchen that will be. Now that we’ve taken care of our windows, and we’re fixin’ to file our taxes, we’ve started talking about the impending kitchen overhaul. Here is what we’re thinking so far…

And on a parting note, if anyone’s got a good exterminator in the Valley that specializes in mosquito eradication, please share!

Saturday, February 6, 2010

Windows 7

Actually we had 8 windows replaced... But my new and early Valentine's Day present runs Windows 7. I know it's a silly reference, but I'm really excited about it. I've had my laptop for almost four years and it's gotten slower and more troublesome over time.

When Tali was here over MLK day weekend, she brought along her new Netbook and Mark and I were all about it! -Let's not fail to mention the hype of the iPad in the last week or two... Anyhow, I convinced myself and Mark that a Netbook would be a win for the both of us and the world... It takes up less space in our house, I would blog more, and we could take it on vacations with us and barely make a dent in our carry on luggage...

So now we've got Windows 7 and Windows 8. Our new windows (the 8 variety) are a dream-come-true! We have been basking in the glory of our new windows for the past week.


Prior to the window overhaul not only did we rely heavily on our central heating, but more importantly, we prayed for outdoor silence, whether it be from our neighbors' playing children or barking dogs... -But this past Sunday, Mark ran inside from walking Lola around 8am, exclaiming, "look out the window!" I quickly did, only to discover about twenty boys between the ages of 9 and 13 gathered in the middle of the street, just yards away from our window. Now unless these children are students of the local mimery, they were likely talking and laughing, exchanges that would have typically led Mark and I to complete and utter insanity on any given Sunday morning... But not last Sunday! Thanks to our friend Mike and our newly installed windows, these paintballin' birthday celebratin' boys didn't as much as jostle us from our peaceful slumber. Amen!


In other news, you may have noticed the new layout. I know, I love it too... Thanks Tali!!! Head over to her blog and check out the completed baby bedding. She did an amazing job!