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.