St. Louis Getaway

This last weekend was a really good one. Dave and I took off Thursday & Friday from work and flew out to St. Louis for a long weekend. Our friends Jeff & Jason had moved out there a few months ago and not having ever really visited the town, that I can remember, it was nice to go visit some place different.
Needless to say, this trip wasn't the best for our eating regimen, but we'll get back on it when we get back into town.
On the first night that we were in St. Louis, Jeff & Jason took us to a part of town with a lot of restaurants and we ate at Blueberry Hill. Then, they drove us around and we saw Washington University where Jason is going to law school. We got home and then decided to go out to the mall and window shop. The place was deserted because the St. Louis Cardinals were playing the last game of the National League Championship Series to decide who would be going to the World Series. We caught the tail-end of the exciting game later on. The "Cards" won. After window shopping, we decided to go to dinner in St. Louis' version of Little Italy called "The Hill." We wanted to go to this one place, and when we got there, we realized that we were all severely underdressed so we figured we'd walk down the street and find some other place. We ended up not in an Italian restaurant, but a tapas restaurant... very good, but not what we were aiming for.
The next day, we decided to go see the Arch in St. Louis. It was very nice to see, and impressive to boot. It did end up being a long day though. Eventually, we were able to go up in the Arch. The little cars that they put you in fit only five individuals... and very tightly at that! The cars reminded me of the little egg-shaped spaceship in "Mork & Mindy." I mentioned this to a younger (than me) couple that was in the car riding down. The girl gave me a blank look for a few seconds and then laughed in agreement. I suspect that she might have not really known what I was talking about. Enough dating myself for the time-being.
The whole time we were there, the boys were giving me a hard time for "acting Japanese" with all the pictures I was taking... or something like that. I hope that the pictures turned out well.
We went to dinner that night at a fantastic Mexican restaurant not far from "the boys'" home in Webster Groves called "El Maguey." I'm not really sure what that word means in Spanish, but I've heard it plenty and think it referrs to a person... some kind of title or position. Anyhoo, the food was to die for... almost as good as Rosa's back home in Tucson. Unfortunately, the food knocked me out and coupled with the long day at the Arch, I didn't feel like going out. So, we stayed in, watched a movie and chit-chatted.
On Saturday, after a walk with Nico, the Alaskan Huskie (Jeff & Jason's dog), the Boys wanted to go to a sports bar and watch the Arkansas Razorbacks play. It was a good time. We met some other Arkansas fans and we had a crazy waitress "Lala," who in a drunken stupor, got her own name tatooed on her forearm the previous night. Classy. As Jason said, "atleast she didn't tatoo her boyfriend's name on there."
After the game, we went home and just farted around a bunch until dinner time rolled around. We had decided that we were going to go to a strip-joint that night... not with ladies... with boys. We went and got a quick bite to eat, and after getting lost plenty of times along the way, we finally found it. Needless to say, at 8pm, there wasn't a whole lot going on. We were the only ones there besides the dancers... which was a bit disconcerting, so we "played pool." The quotes are to imply that while we were trying to get the balls in the holes, our concentration wasn't entirely up to par... especially when some goodlooking guy (aka Wonderboy) is up on the bar buck-nekkid and sporting a woodie. After spending more money than was healthy on over-priced beer and the placing of singles in the guys' socks (since that was the only place to put them really)... we decided to leave... but not before getting wacked on the end of my nose by the "excited organ" of one of the dancers when I went to tip him. Good times... Suffice it to say, there'll be no pictures from that portion of the trip, although I wouldn't have minded. Check it out if you wish: http://www.boxersnbriefs.com/
A very memorable trip indeed... all around. Thanks to the Boys for hosting and putting up with our laundry. :)

A great fall day!

What a great fall day yesterday was! It started out as any other normal Sunday would begin. Normally, we would go to the gym at 8am, followed up by Panera for our after-workout treat, after which we would go about our day doing chores or errands that we had slotted for that day. Dave and I had picked yesterday as the day that we were going to revamp the plantings on our front porch and make the whole area look more "fall-y." We went to Lowes to pick up some 'mums to put on the front porch. It broke my heart that I was going to have to tear out the plants that were in my copper-looking metal pots because they were doing well and showed no signs of dying. My only consolation was that I knew that it was going to start freezing soon and that they would most definitely die then.
As I was going to tear out the daisy bush from one of the planters, I was surprised by the biggest preying mantis that I have ever seen. This thing was about as long as my hand is fromt he tip of my fingers to the base of my hand at the wrist. I almost stopped my gardening for the day right there! I didn't want to go near that thing. However, the gardening wasn't going to do itself, so I plucked up the courage to flick it off the plant with a garden trowel.
As I was tearing out the plants, I realized that the soil was so root-clogged that I was going to have to tear everything out and wouldn't be able to re-use any of the soil, but while I was tearing out the roots for the sweet potatoe vines, I came across bonafide sweet potatoes! Out of four plants, I harvested about ten or so sweet potatoes of varying sizes. I couldn't believe it. Up to then, I had been certain that the name for the vine was just a cutesie name given to it by some gardener and that it really had nothing to do with actual sweet potatoes. That said, I don't think that I'll be eating these sweet potatoes... they don't look like normal sweet potatoes. Perhaps if I'd let them go until they died, they'd be ripe. Who knows?
After I finished potting the 'mums that we had bought at Lowe's, we washed the pick-up and waited for our friends Joe, Suzie and their daughter Isabelle aka "Izzy" to come over so that we could go get pumpkins... or "punkins" as I find myself calling them. Thanks Mom.
We decided to go up to Hubers farm because it wasn't far for us, but when we got there, it quickly became apparent that the "pumpkin patch" was no more than a squash patch that they had decided to randomly set down about ten to fifteen pumpkins in. What a disappointment. So, we ended up having to pick the pumpkins off of a table up at the stand... which we could've done at the grocery store as far as I'm concerned. Growing up in AZ, we always got our pumpkins from some guy who just had them set out on the ground and didn't get the opportunity to go to a farm and pick them out of the patch. That's why I like to pick them myself. It's more of an experience.
After picking our pumkins, Joe, Suzie and Izzy came over to our house for dinner and we grilled pork chops, portabella mushrooms and pineapple. Suzie made the best mashed potatoes (very against our dietary guidelines) and a salad. To go with the pork chops, I made a sauce that I saw on tv the other day called "chimichurri" sauce. It was very easy. I threw cilantro, garlic, olive oil and salt in a blender. Of course, put more or less of various things according to your tastes, but it was delicious! After that, we hung out for a little bit and then Joe and Suzie had to go home to put the little one to bed. She is soooo cute!!!
After Joe and Suzie left, I started putting together the front porch area. I had bought a hay bale for the corner to put a pumpkin on, but I think that I'm going to buy two more. I also bought 4 sets (with 3 in each) of that dried out colorful corn... to hang from the lanterns outside. I'll include a picture when it's all said and done.
I find that as I grow older, I'm coming to love the fall season more and more. Back in the day, I didn't like it as much because I knew that it just heralded the imminent onset of winter. Nowadays, I find that I can just appreciate it for its beauty (in the leaves), the great weather (not hot and not cold) and the overall cozy feeling that I get when I put on a sweatshirt and go outside in the brisk air to take the doggies for a walk.

Bye bye to the FAM and Hello Philly!

My parents and my grandmother left town this last Monday to go home to Arizona. It was sad. After being slightly annoyed at their presence... because that's what sons (and daughters do)... I was sad to see them go... and looking back, I don't think that I spent any real quality time with my grandmother... time when we really got to chat. That's not to say that we didn't have the opportunity, we did... but apparently didn't take full advantage of it. Coming from a big family, I've come to take great pleasure in being surrounded by a lot of people that I love/like all at one time. It can be hectic and crazy, but in the end, the emotional gain is greater than all the stress involved in worring about their comfort, entertainment, etc. The emptiness after my folks' departure was weird... but I got used to it again.
My mom and I were able to spend a special day together. We went out to lunch at Sander's Corner on Cromwell Bridge Road and chatted for a while. After lunch, I noticed that the Loch Raven Reservoir Dam road was open now so we went for a drive. I've forgotten how beautiful the area around the reservoir is. After driving around a bit, my mom wanted to go to an antique store, so we went to one on the "other side of the tracks" and I was lucky and found a great rocking chair that I'll need to refinish as well as a nutcracker in the shape of a dog... you lift its tail up and the mouth opens! On the day before they left, Dave and I took my folks up to Havre de Grace, along the Susquehanna river just north of us. We had dinner at a nice cafe that is right on the river, although it was sorta cold. On the way back, we stopped off at Huber's farm and tried to find the middle of the corn maze... w/out cheating! Of course we didn't find it, but it was the first time a few of us had done that and it was a nice experience.

Yesterday, Dave and I drove up to Philly for our friend Rachel's surprise birthday dinner. We were late getting up there because some wacko decided to lead a police chase into our neighborhood and hunker down in the woods right next door. So, Dave was locked up in the house, I couldn't get to the house because all the roads were blocked off, and apparently, gunshots were fired. Eventually, they located the nut-job and hauled him away. So, we were able to high-tail it up to Philly. Our friend Rachel was sitting in a booth in front of a window at the Continental mid-town with her girlfriend Dina. We walked right up to the window and just stood there until she saw us. She seemed pretty excited to see us and I think that she was pretty surprised. The Continental had really good food, and I sorta wish that we had tried more. I really loved the Ahi Tuna tartare... delish. Everything else was really good too. It's always nice going up there and seeing Rachel... and it's nice seeing that she's found somebody that she cares about and can share her time with. We ended up staying the night with our friends Mike and Christine who live in a high-rise close to the art museum in Philly. Today, we went to the White Dog cafe for lunch... aside from walking around the city and just enjoying being there. Good times were had by all.

Family Visit

So my family is in town visiting right now. It's very nice to see them, especially in my environment and not theirs. That said, it's a bit trying at times because I'm not used to having to deal with other people's special needs (or mess)... only my own and David's. No big deal though. On the first day, we all decided to go to Ft. McHenry in Baltimore. Ft. McHenry is the fort that protected the city of Baltimore in the war of 1812 against Great Britain. It was very nice going there because in the five years or so that we've lived here, I hadn't been there yet. One night, we decided to have Maryland crabs at our place. I don't think that I'll ever have crabs that good anywhere. It has everything to do with the spices that they steam the crabs in. Everywhere else that I've gone in the States, it's just boring old butter. BLAH. Coincidentally, we celebrated Dave's and my birthday that day... he's 37 and I'm 32 now. Our friends, Suzie and Joe along with their daughter Isabelle... and Dave's mom were there.

It's very nice seeing Juanita again. Unfortunately, seeing her makes me realize that she is getting a lot older. At 89, she still gets around pretty well, but she's so much more weaker than she used to be and thinner as well. I just don't like seeing people get so old that they're incapable of taking care of themselves... nor do I want that to happen to me. *sigh*

On a different topic, Dave and I have started using a personal trainer. I would love to put a picture of him up on here but he might think that was sorta weird if I asked him if we could take a picture of him. At any rate, the guy seems like a top-notch trainer and he's put David and I on some dietary guidelines that we have to follow... and he's also going to be putting us on a weightlifting schedule as well. Hopefully in a few weeks of this crappy eating, we'll see some results. :) Actually, the eating isn't all bad. I had a hankering for some Oreo cookies the other day though. It might be tough, but hopefully it'll be worth it. That said, the weekends, within reason, are my time. My time to go out to restaurants and order whatever I'd like. I'll still follow the dietary guidelines during the day, but am not going to hold back too much when going out to dinner and having a 'tini or two. :) It was actually disturbing when the trainer did a body fat test. Turns out that I have 23% body fat. That equalled 41 or so pounds of fat. Ugh.... and 131 pound of other (good) stuff. David was 14%. Hopefully that will come down with just some of the healthier eating. The trainer said that he was going to check once a month. Cross your fingers.

Short but Sweet Weekend

This was a nice weekend... short but sweet.
I spent some time at the rental unit clearing out the garden. Unfortunately, I have to go back and rearrange some plants because they're getting a bit too big for their surroundings. Perhaps I'll bring some of them over here because they'll have more room here. They're sorta packed in where they are.
Earlier this week, Dave and I planted 5 of the hydrangeas that I've been growing in pots. We finally were able to put them in the ground. Today, (Sunday) we also went to Lowe's and got some shrubs to put in front of the Hydrangeas. We were also thinking about planting some 'Mums in front of those shrubs too... for the season. I'll try to include a picture when we're done with the 'Mums.
On Saturday, we drove down to Centreville, VA to visit Dave's sister Laurie and her hubby, Mike. Our friends Chris and Becky came too and we had Greek Burgers. All they are is a regular burger with some kind of spicy meat sauce on top of the patty. I put the meat sauce on the hotdogs too... kinda like a chili-dog. Very good. We had thought about going to a martini bar that was not far from their house, but we were all very tired from doing nothing, that we just stayed in. We had a good time though. It's always nice to see those kids.
Today, I washed the pick-up for the first time. This last week, some jackass that works around here, whose responsibility it is to sweep the street after a lot of mud has gotten on it, came by and swept. Well, the sweeper is attached to a bobcat tractor type thing... and invariably kicks up a lot of dust. Well, I didn't see it but you can see by the tracks that he came within a few feet of the back of my truck, swerved around it and went on his way. My truck was no longer silver. It was nice to wash it for the first time. I'll try to include a picture of that too.

Early Alzheimers

This last weekend was Labor day weekend and I must say that it was an especially good weekend. On Saturday, we had a bunch of people (to include our friend Rachel and her g-friend Dina, Dave's clients Greg & Loren, Suzanne & little Izzy and Rae & Erin joined us later) over for chicken on the grill. Unfortunately, the grill ran out of propane halfway through the 2nd batch of chicken. Not to worry, we just tossed it into the oven to finish it off. I bought a cocktail shaker and some martini glasses and we had some appletinis and had a grand old time chit-chatting and enjoying eachother's company. On Sunday, the weather was beautiful so I decided to go outside and finish the gardening bed on the side of our house that I had started the previous weekend. Later on, we went to a tapas restaurant called Pazo in Fell's Point with our dog sitters. On Monday, the weather was even more beatiful than on Sunday and we were invited over to our friend Agisi's 33rd birthday. They were talking about ages and I told them that I was going to be 33 on the 24th of this month. Dave then proceeded to say that he was going to be 37 on the 22nd. This threw me for a loop because I've always known him and I to be 5 years apart in age, almost to the day. I insisted that he was going to be turning 38 and that he must've forgotten. So, the people there asked what year he was born in... 1969. They did the math, and indeed, he was going to be turning 37 this year. Naturally, all eyes turned to me and asked which year I was born in... 1974. Mathematics indicated that I'm going to be turning 32 this year. No one's ever been so dismayed to be a year younger than they thought they were. All this last year, I've been thinking that I was 32 and that I was going to be turning 33 in September. Somewhere along the line, I fooled myself and I can't figure out how. So, now it only seems like I'm going to be 32 for two years. Even now, I doubt the results of our discovery. I've always had a poor memory, but really... :)

A Penny Saved Becomes A Penny Spent

So, we got back from our vacation about a week and a half ago, and we're not home one hour when Dave says, "Let's go look at cars!" You can imagine where this is leading. Let me rewind.
This spring, we decided to say "goodbye" to our beloved 325 since it was starting to have (costly) problems. We pocketed the cash that we got from the sale saying that it would go to the next car. A penny (or two) saved. So, we're left with Dave's X5 and my Mini Cooper. The thing is that David insists that I have 4-wheel drive in the winter, for safety reasons. I was thinking that I'd be fine with the Mini all winter so that we wouldn't have to worry about a car payment. David insisted so I started thinking about what kind of car we "needed" and would be the most beneficial to us. I settled on a pick-up, since I hate that I can't pack dirty gardening things in any of our cars and I'm going to be having tons of garding projects to do really soon. So, back to the future...
Dave and I run out to the local Toyota dealership since that's what we decided we wanted. None of the other trucks appealed to us, based on look and maker. David had called the dealership and had spoken to a very knowledgeable individual about the trucks and so we decided to go speak to this guy. Well, we get there and ask for him and of course he's busy. He pawned us off on some poindexter type who obviously didn't know anything about the product that he was selling. I'm surprised that we didn't end up selling a truck to him!
So, we humor the guy, do a test-drive and sit down with him for a while. It's already obvious to us that we're not going to buy anything from this guy, so after a lot of telling him what options there are on the truck, etc... we leave.
I come back from work the next day and it turns out that David says that he called a dealer up in Bel Air... about 15 minutes away. So, we go up there and talk to a very knowledgeable guy. We end up not getting the truck because we wanted to check out some things first... but not before getting a price of somewhere between 27 and 28 K.
I come back from work the next day and apparently David had been a busy little bee. In his free time, he went up to another dealer and got some rock-bottom prices from them, called another dealer and got some low prices from them too. So we decide to go back to the second dealer in Bel Air.
When we got there, David laid it all out. I was so proud of him... my little negotiator. We ended up paying 25.5K. Then,... we're going over the contract, and there's a $100 processing fee with "not required by law" next to it. Of course, I didn't even see it. Anything with more than 10 consecutive numbers tends to make my head spin. But of course, David did. So he says, "I don't want to pay that." They guy says, "Why?" Dave says, "Because it's not required by law." The guy hesitated for a sec, and then crossed out the 100 bucks. What would I do without Dave?
So, after all that, we settled on a silver Toyota Tacoma with one of those half back seats... because the bed of the truck was more important to us. I'm going to include a picture from the website...it's exactly like our truck, except ours is silver. A penny spent...
Well, not two days later, we went to Lowe's and bought tons of mulch, plants etc... and even got a tiller so that I could start preparing the first of my gardening beds. It was a productive week! Here's our truck... and as Dave put it... "Todd being butch."