It's about that time...

Well, here you have it. This is our extent of decorating looks like. Not too shabby eh? And yes, that is a real tree. Merry Christmas everyone.

No Shave November...

Day 1

This year it finally happened, I remembered about No Shave November before it was actually half way through November. As you can see from the above photo, I started out with a nice clean face (thanks mostly to my Halloween costume this year requiring a baby face). Where does NSN come from? Well, the original idea was brought to my attention by my lovely wife. Some of her friends in college would not shave for the month of November to raise awareness and funds for testicular cancer. I am sure that over the course of the past several years she has mentioned this when she mentioned NSN, but I completely forgot about it. This little tid-bit of information would have made much more sense as to why I was not shaving, compared to my usual answer, "it's No Shave November man."

Day 8

As the days began to accumulate, the novelty started to wear off and the fact that I was actually growing a beard, on purpose, started to set in. It wasn't really that unusual for me to grow a beard, but usually it involved me going on a trip for a week or so and refusing to shave. This time, was obviously a little different. I actually had to go to work with this thing.

About two and a half weeks in, people at work started noticing it (as you can see by the above picture, it was pretty obvious before then). One of our store leaders came by and informed me that because I work around food, on occasion, I would have to wear a beard net if the length was over 1/2". Although the idea of wearing a beard net was very appealing, I opted to keep the beard nice and trimmed (read less than 1/2").

Fast forward another week and a half. My mom's side of the family likes to have their Thanksgiving lunch the Saturday before and here in Dallas (well, technically McKinney). Up to this point we had not mentioned to anyone in my family that I had a beard. Partially for shock value, but mostly because it just wasn't generally a topic of conversation. Heather and I arrived at the same time as my parents, my father made the first comment. "Heather must be pregnant." Words can not describe the look on my wife's face when she heard this. Ok, bit of a back story, the only time my father has ever had a beard was when my mom was pregnant with me. The day I was born, he stayed through the delivery, went home, cleaned up and shaved, never to have a beard again. Needless to say, Heather is not pregnant at this time, but she was also not aware of the origin of my father's comment. As you can imagine, it was very very interesting for a few minutes.

Finally, Day 30. The last day of the beard. Quite honestly, it was not nearly as bad as I thought it would be. I was expecting it to itch and drive me crazy, but not so much. After about the first week or so, I grew accustomed to the little itch around my mouth and under my chin. The first full shave in nearly a month was interesting, but not that unusual. I did not carve any crazy designs, or shave everything but the mustache (check here for that), just your normal, everyday shave. Did I learn anything from this little experience. Sure, if I do this next year, make sure to raise money for a good cause and don't let your beard get over 1/2".

Day 30

Heather's Birthday

So, here are some pictures from Heather's birthday in Ft. Worth. Nothing too exciting. I suppose we need to work on taking more pictures.

Well, It's Not Summer...

So, in most parts of the country, there are distinct seasons, four of them to be exact. Spring, Summer, Fall and Winter. Here in Texas we have two, hot and wet. You think I'm joking? Ask anyone who has lived in Texas for any stretch of time and they will tell you the same thing. Poor Houston generally just stays hot year round. Sure, there is the occasional cold spell, but generally no discernable slow change of seasons. It's hot one day, it rains that night, it's cold or cooler the next. A week or so later it will be warm again. Then this process repeats itself.

Exhibit A. Month to date the highest high here was 92 degrees, currently it is 65, this weekend it's forecasted to be up near 80 again. No wonder I have sinus problems.

Heather and I are both huge fans of cooler weather. One of the main reasons is because I can do exactly what I'm doing now, sitting outside with a mug of hot cocoa and not sweating (at all). Another, looking in Heather's direction on this one, is that the bugs tend to either hibernate or die off completely. Always a plus if you ask me.

But finally, Texas seems to be one of the few places that more people go outside when cool weather finally arrives. It's odd really, most people dread winter. Here we (at least our household) dreads summer. In winter you can bundle up, light a fire and drink warm drinks. In summer, except for spending the entire time in the pool, there are only so many clothes you can take off in public before you run the risk of getting arrested.

So, to end, I guess I'll leave you with my newly created recipe of hot cocoa. When I say newly created I mean, I looked it up in my edition of Joy of Cooking. This is a little more labor intensive, but it's well worth it.

Hot Cocoa
makes one large cup

2 tbl Unsweetened Cocoa Powder
1 tbl Sugar
1 1/2 C Milk
1/4 tsp Vanilla extract

Combine cocoa powder and sugar in sauce pan. Pour in milk and whisk until somewhat combined. Place over medium heat and stir occasionally until combined and bubbles start to form. Remove from heat, pour in vanilla extract and stir. Pour into your favorite mug and enjoy.

Quck Tomato Update...

So, here they are, the famous tomato plants. Well, famous to me anyway. From the 50 some odd seeds that I planted, these are the only 4 (only 3 pictured) that I kept and put my hope in. As you can see, a couple of them are doing really well. One of them is doing ok, and the other is just barely hanging in there.

Sadly, there are no tomatoes yet, but hopefully soon. If there is anything that this has taught me is that growing your own anything takes time and a lot of patience. I'll make sure to update you when the first tomatoes start to sprout. Hopefully the hurricane won't blow them away.

She said yes!!!

Well, exactly one year ago today, she did just that. It was on that day that Heather changed my life (well, both our lives for that matter), forever. For those of you who don't know the story, it went a little something like this...

We were both off of work that day, so we decided to go for a little run. You see, at this point we were training for a half marathon. I say "at this point" because I believe this was the second (and last) time we ran. I had it all planned out. We were going to run, then come back to my apartment, Heather was going to find the little surprise I left for her, I would propose, she would say yes, ofcourse, and we would go out to celebrate with a very nice breakfast. Well, it didn't quite happen exactly like that.

After our run, Heather and I were both hungry, although I think I mistook nerves for hunger because I wasn't able to eat a thing. We arrived at a little place called Legal Grounds in Lakewood, which is oddly enough very near where we live now, and ordered. As I just mentioned, no food for me, just a wee little bit of coffee. After a nice, short breakfast, we headed back to our apartments. We were going to look at West Elm, which just opened up. After dropping Heather off at her place, I ran home and set everything up. There were roses, notes, riddles, everything. It was perfect. But, I had to figure out some way to get her back to my place without raising any suspicion. So, I "accidentally" left my wallet at my apartment when I went to pick her up. "Oh no! I left my wallet, we have to go back to my place." was the line that started it all. When we pulled in the parking lot, I told her that she had to come up because Tommy, my roommate at the time, had cleaned. This was partially true. As she walked through the door, I ran into my bathroom, where the ring was waiting. Heather came around the corner and asked, "who got flowers?" Then she began to realize what was going on. As I came out, ring in hand, I told her that there would be no crying. That didn't last long, for either of us. Each of the boxes in the picture to the right, had a little note, and they are each very special to us. After she finished opening each box, I took her over to the couch (the very same place I first told her I loved her) sat her down, got down on one knee, and asked her to marry me. Her initial response, "I love you!", which as most guys will tell you, is great, but not the exact answer you're looking for at the moment. So, I had to clarify, "that's a yes, right?" She shook her head and gave me a huge hug.

So there you have it, our engagement story, not as exciting as proposing on a mountain in Alaska or something like that, but we were both very happy with it. It's hard to believe that was a full year ago now, but how times flies. Of course, a large portion of the past year has been filled with wedding planning. More to come on that later.



*all photos courtesy of Paul Golangco

Chi-town...post 2

Ok, more pictures...

Chi-town...post 1

Well, we finally made it back in last night. Needless to say, Chicago is one of my new favorite places. The weather was amazing, they actually have seasons there you know. The food was great, Greek, Italian, coffee, chocolate, pizza, how can you go wrong? The people were friendly, although terrible drivers, and the city actually had some culture.

I would also like to note that public transportation is a great thing, that is much needed in Dallas. I know we may have a bus and DART rail (that goes from point a to point b, and not much else), but they would make life so much easier if only there was a bit more emphasis placed on the use of public transportation and it's benefits. Ok, end soap box. Time for the pictures.

It's Raining in Chicago...

Apparently it's raining in Chicago. That means we're sitting at the
airport, waiting to board the plane (for about 2 hours, with at least
one more to go). I must admit, with me being the seasoned traveler and
all, this is my first long delay. At least I have a book, and we're in
the a/c. More to come later.

-Steven

And We're Off...

To Chicago that is, in the morning. Get excited. We have our boarding passes, and tickets to the Cubs game. What more do you need really? We'll make sure to take lots of pictures and post some. Until then...

Sprout!!!

Woohoo!! We have a sprout. I know it's not much, but it's a start. That is all really, more updates to come. Enjoy.

-Steven

Our First Netflick...

Is that considered the singular form of NetFlix? Oh well, we recently signed up and our first movie came in yesterday. It is....(drumroll sound here)...The Darjeeling Limited by Wes Anderson. It has been quite enjoyable so far, then again, we have only watched about the first 30 minutes. What I can tell you is that it is the usual Wes Anderson humor.

Other Movies of Interest:
Bottle Rocket
Rushmore
The Royal Tenenbaums
The Life Aquatic with Steve Zissou

Sorry, back to NetFlix. This, so far, seems to be a great idea. We were never really big movie watchers, but then again, this service seems to take all the hastle out of renting a movie. Just que up a few movies online that you would like to watch, wait a few days, pick up your mail, watch, return and start the process over again. Pretty simple and convenient if you ask me.

-Steven

Tomato Plants...the beginning

As many of you may (or may not) know, we recently decided to start growing our own herbs to use here at the house. Nothing major, just the usual. Basil, oregano, parsley (which didn't quite make it), mint and thyme. To our surprise, those took off fairly well (with the exception of the previously mentioned parsley). Fast forward a few weeks. Heather and I are at Whole Foods getting stuff to make guacamole for a party and we picked up a few heirloom tomatoes (wikipedia has a much better explanation of what they are exactly here) to chop up and put in the dish. As we got to the register, our prized little red globes rang up to around $8. Wow! Two tomatoes at about $4 each, even with my discount this is pretty pricey. That launched me into the quest to grow our own tomatoes from these heirloom seeds.

Step 1: Collect and Prepare the seeds
Sadly, I don't have any pictures of this for you guys. It was quite the interesting process. First you salvage the seeds from whatever pulp you don't use, place them in a container, add a little water, stir, set in a warm place and wait. For three days. Seriously. Then, after a nice layer of mold/scum builds up on top you scrape that off, add a little more water and stir (again). At this point the "good" seeds settle to the bottom and all that is left to do is remove what's left. Now you are left with seeds and a little mush that is hanging on, which is washed off with the help of a fine mesh sieve. At this point you should have just seeds (which we did) which are to be spread out on a paper towel and dry for about 3 days. Total time invested: about one week

Step 2: Gather the seeds
This step is a little less involved, just collect the dried seeds and place in an envelope for easy transport. "Make sure to label the envelope", they all said, I'm sure I'll get around to it soon.

Step 3: Plant the seeds
This part is what I'm sure most of you think of when you think of planting tomatoes. I went to a local garden center, picked up some seed starter soil. Which, on a side note, apparently dirt is no longer just dirt, they actually have soil that has been blended for all types of specific purposes. Weird, I know. Also, when I decided to start this project, I had the foresight (which is unusual for me) to save a couple of egg crates to start the seeds in. I added a bit of this patented organic seed starting soil to the bottom of each little egg holder, and carefully placed 3-4 seeds in there. On top of this, you guessed it, more patented organic seed starter soil, with a little water just for good measure. Then wrap the whole thing in plastic wrap, to create your own little green house and there you go, done. Tomato plants in no time. Well, not quite. There is the continued watering and maintenance, just to make sure local critters don't completely disturb our new little plants.

Step 4: Wait...
Yeah, pretty much self explanatory, I'll keep you updated on any happenings.

-Steven

We're Going to Chicago!!!!

Hello Chi-town, here we come. More details to come later, but what I can say is that I was finally able to use up all of those "thank you point" and get the tickets this morning. Woohoo! My first trip to the windy city. Ofcourse, Heather has been at least once, so that qualifies her as a tour guide. The main reason for the trip is to, well mostly get us out of the Texas heat in August, but also visit Heather's plutonic life partner, Heather. Yes, it's just as confusing as it sounds. Needless to say, we're pretty excited. I'll try to make sure to post plenty of pictures for those of you out there that might be interested in those sorts of things.

-Steven

Our Thursday...

So, yesterday started off normal enough. I had a store meeting, Heather had the day off. We went to power yoga at the Y, which I still think is a form or torture, and tried a new restaurant. Sometime during the middle of the day, we invited Paul and Al over for dinner, and started getting ready for that. We planned a menu, Italian was the theme. Heather wanted to make a white sangria, and I decided on lasagna (my mom's recipe) and tiramisu for dessert.

We went shopping, spending a small fortune at the local Whole Foods, and were finally ready to start cooking. First we got the cold things ready, the dessert and the sangria. Then decided to take Anna for a walk. This is where things go went down hill very quickly. We walked outside and realized that we forgot the keys. I went back in to grab them, however, when I did, I moved some of Anna's "bags" from one pocket to another. For what ever reason, my brain perceived this as "we have the keys, let's go." You see, we have the type of exterior door that you can lock while the door is open (without the key mind you), then shut. And that is exactly what I did. The instant the door clicked shut, I realized what I had done. It was 3:30.

Well, panic didn't quite sink in. "It's an old house," we thought, "I'm sure the door will open right up." It didn't, neither did any of the windows, our place was on lock down, and we were outside. Now most normal people would have hidden a key outside when they moved in, we didn't. Also, these "normal people" would have left a spare with a trusted friend, we did, she is currently in Africa (strike two). Finally, we called our landlord. To our surprise, he picked up. He was in Lubbock, about 5 hours away. Luckily, he was about to board a plane, to fly back to Dallas. This would cut the trip down to about 45 minutes, we could handle that. At this point we figured we might as well go on that walk, we had some time to kill.

Summers in Texas are always one thing, if nothing else, and that is hot. About 4 pm during the summer is usually the warmest part of the day, and like I mentioned earlier, we were stuck outside. The walk wasn't all that bad, a bit warm, but bearable. Anna, on the other hand, might disagree. When we returned to the house (with about an hour to go before we were let back in) she ran straight to the door to get in first (as is her usual custom). Today, she would have to wait. This did not go over very well. After about 5 minutes of waiting, the whining began. Then the burning stare, as if we were doing this on purpose. Heather and I kept ourselves occupied by rolling an old skateboard down the sidewalk (we're pretty creative, I know).

Finally, after two and a half hours of waiting, our landlord called to let us know that he was back on the ground in Dallas. Woohoo!!! This excitement quickly faded when he called back a few minutes later and informed us that he had a flat and would be a little later than expected. So we waited, again...

When he arrived finally, it was pretty anticlimatic. He just walked up and opened the door, nothing fancy, no trumpets sounding in victory, nothing really. I quickly ran in and began preparing dinner, Heather was watching Anna and Buster (the pomaranian next door) play in the back yard. Dinner went off without a hitch though, and we got to spend some great time with great friends. And the white sangria was amazing, tiramisu not so much.

The End.

-Steven

Song of the moment...

Lost!
Coldplay

Go out and give it a listen.

-Steven

Winding Down...

Lazy Sunday Morning...

Today was one of the first few days we have had off together in quite some time. It is really great to be able to wake up and get a great breakfast. We decided to visit a new place we found in Deep Ellum a few days ago called The Allgood Cafe.



This place is really great because they try to use ingredients from the local farmers market, which is just a couple blocks away. Heather opted for the oatmeal with fresh blueberries and I went for the Breakfast #2, which included two pancakes, two eggs and another protein (I decided on the peppered bacon), and we both had mimosas and coffee (as pictured above). The food is amazing, as I mentioned, very fresh. The mimosas were strong, but good and the coffee would fetch an average rating (although, I'm a bit of a snob when it comes to that sort of thing.)

That's it for now, off to a party. Will try to post more later.

sp

Initial Post...

Well, I suppose this is where most people note that they decided to start a blog, or have been mulling over the idea and finally just did it. I guess we fall into one of those categories. Here is the first post. Nothing profound, or too terribly thought provoking, just a place for us to post pictures, thoughts and happenings of our day to day lives. I realize that we have friends and family that are all over the place (or soon will be) and thought it would be a good central location to keep them updated on what we are doing.

Cheers,
Steven and Heather