paws

Marley, our fat kitty, likes to hide in cupboards and cabinets. When she was brand new to our house she discovered that she could get behind the cabinetry in the kitchen, and hide behind the drawers. I think when we replaced the dishwasher she realized that she could go further back.
My computer sits on the counter that goes between the kitchen and the dining room. The other day I was at my computer and I looked down to see Marley's legs. She was behind the dishwasher, and her legs were poking out on the side of the dining room. Like I said she is a fat kitty and I wanted to make sure she could get out. I opened up some food and she was out in a jiffy. Kooky Kitty!

Home Improvement

A few weeks ago Eddie went to a foreclosure sale and found a brand new dishwasher for our kitchen and a nice gas BBQ for our backyard. Both appliances he acquired for $600.00. The dishwasher was over $1000.00 and the BBQ came in just over $500.00 when we looked them up online. Needless to say Eddie was very happy with his bargain shopping.
I have not had a working dishwasher for over 2 years. The dishwasher that came with the house when we bought this house was beginning to fail when we moved in. It was usable but I wanted to replace it. Well with all the other projects we had to do, the dishwasher got put further down our priority list. It didn't clean the dishes well, so I basically washed the dishes before putting them in the dishwasher anyway. One day I came up the stairs to find that the dishwasher had flooded the kitchen floor. This relegated the dishwasher to a drying rack for 2 years.
Eddie removed the old dishwasher and installed the new one. He was hoping it would just take an hour or so, but as home improvement projects go, this was not the case... here's what happened.
Eddie was trying remove the old dishwasher and it wouldn't come out. We had put tile in our kitchen a few years ago, that was actually one of our first projects. The tile had made the floor too high to get the dishwasher out. Eddie was able to adjust the footings on the dishwasher making it an inch or two shorter. He then bent a couple of prongs on the top and with alot of huffing and puffing he finally got the old dishwasher out.



Our pets were all very interested in what was going on. All 3 were on hand to help Eddie.



Finally Eddie was ready to put the new dishwasher in.





This dishwasher looks smaller in size but he was unable to get it to fit in the area that it was supposed to go. Feeling very frustrated at this point Eddie decided that he would have to stop and have someone come and cut our counter top so we could get it in. We went a whole day and a half with the dishwasher partially in. My water to the kitchen sink was off and the silverware drawer was blocked. Somehow we managed, and the tile guy came the next evening. He had to cut two notches in the underside of the counter top and remove some of tile on the floor.

But now my new dishwasher is installed and runs great. My dishes are really clean and it runs so quietly. Its great to have appliances that work! Next will be new cabinets and a new counter top...

Happy Birthday Eddie

Today is Eddie's birthday! It was celebrated with lots of food. At work we took a long lunch and went out for sushi with Joey and Sue (our employees). I thought it was fun. Its always nice to get out of the office to talk and joke around together. We had some really good sushi rolls and for dessert we had mochi ice cream. Mochi ice cream is a rice cake filled with ice cream. There are several flavors, today we had strawberry, vanilla, and mango. I had mango. If you haven't tried these melt in your mouth treats before, you can get them at Trader Joes.

After work Jake and I took Eddie out to dinner at Aloha Steakhouse. Our friend Dave and his boys Max and Spencer joined us. My dinner was delicious. I had macadamia nut crusted mahi mahi. Eddie had baked scallops and Jake had a steak. Everyone was quite happy with their choice.
Eddie and Dave love to tell their stories to the boys. Tonight was no exception. Sometimes I worry that these boys might get ideas to re-invent some of these stories on their own. Eddie was telling stories of BB guns and shooting out neighbors windows. Dave would back them up with stories of shooting birds. Then they went into stories about bottle rockets and lizards. The little boys were loving it and adding there own stories. Jake and I were amused how well the little boys knew all about Eddie's and Dave's tales of broken bones and injuries.

For dessert I ordered two chocolate souffles, served with ice cream. We split the souffles one for the Asdels and one for the Soters. The souffles were yummy, warm chocolate cake oozing with chocolate sauce and little pieces of toffee topped with ice cream. Spencer really loves desserts, we tease him all the time about how he loves sweets. Tonight when the souffle came, it was like he was hypnotized by the warm chocolate. I told Max he better grab the plate before Spencer shoveled the whole thing in his mouth.


We had a great time celebrating Eddie's birthday tonight. I always miss Morgan more on these family occasions. Its one of the hard parts about having her gone away to school. Since she is coming home this weekend I'm sure we will celebrate Eddie's birthday one more time!

Surf Flick

Eddie and I went to a movie premiere last weekend at the Elks Lodge in downtown Ventura. The movie was called " The Present ". It's a surf movie that was 5 years in the making. Thomas Campbell is a Californian photographer and filmmaker. The underlying message in the film is to realize what a gift our planet is, and to safeguard it for future generations. The film is touring coastal communities this Spring. His vision for this film was to revive the tradition of surfers gathering together to listen to music and watch independent surf films in local theaters.
We headed down to the historic building of the Elks Lodge on Friday night.

We were treated to a live music session by a jazz duo, " Mattson 2 " This band is traveling with the film tour and is featured on the soundtrack.
The film showed surf spots in West Africa, Australia, Indonesia, New Zealand, Hawaii, and California. (Ventura to be exact)
Two pro surfers featured in the film live here in Ventura. Dan Malloy was featured in several of the exotic surf spots where he gets one of the longest tube rides of his life. Dane Reynolds was featured in the California segment, his ability to pull off aerial maneuvers is amazing. The local crowd always gets excited to see their surf spots on the big screen. Two other pros that live here in Ventura had spots in the film as well. I really enjoyed this movie, the surfing was incredible, the locations were beautiful and amazing. The music was inspiring. After the film Eddie and I headed over to Ferraro's, a family owned and operated Italian restaurant. We ate delicious pasta and talked about surfing and surf trips. I think everyone that attended the movie premiere that night was hoping and praying to wake up to big waves the next day.

This trailer doesn't do the film or music justice. But it's worth a look. For some great photos and music check out the link to The Present and go to photos.

taco soup

I have been wanting to use my crock pot more and recently bought a slow cooker cookbook by Southern Living. Two days a week I work until 8 pm, this makes dinner difficult. I usually pick something up on my way home or Jake and I go grab something to eat once I get home. This habit is old and boring and nothing good is open late. I don't do fast food very well, so the things I will eat are very limited. I have had good intentions to cook more at home, but its hard when I get home so late. The other two nights a week I get off work at 6 pm, it's better, but still puts me home close to 7 pm. So crock pot cooking seems to be a solid option for me. I've done a few things in the crock pot before but I'm hoping to expand my abilities.
Tonight we had "Taco Soup" YUM! It was delicious! It looks like soup so I didn't take any pictures of it, so use your imagination.

Crock pot size: 5 1/2 quart

1 1/2 pounds ground beef (I used ground turkey)
1 cup chopped red onion
1 (1.25oz) package taco seasoning mix
1 (1oz.) envelope Ranch dressing mix
2 (15.25oz.) cans whole kernel corn, undrained
1 (16oz.) can pinto beans, undrained
1 (15oz.) can black beans, undrained
2 (10oz.) cans chili-stlye diced tomatoes with green chiles, undrained
1 (12oz.) can light beer (I used Odoul's)
1 1/2 cups water

Toppings: shredded Cheddar cheese, sour cream, tortilla chips, cilantro

*Brown the ground beef with onion
*Combine meat mixture and taco seasoning mix, and next 7 ingredients in slow cooker
*Cover and cook on LOW 5 to 6 hours
Serve with desired toppings. Makes 16 cups.

After a long day of work, it was so nice to come home and have this hearty soup for dinner. I didn't use any cilantro on mine but I grated some cheese and added a spoonful of sour cream then crushed a handful of tortilla chips on top of my bowl of soup. It was so good, I had to have seconds. And I bet it will be even better tomorrow!

notebook

Today I was able to read "The Notebook" I enjoyed this romantic tale. It was a good love story. It only took me 4 hours to read (roughly) But if you need a break from the regularities of the day, I recommend this book. I liked the perspective this book gave on love and growing older and the promises we make to each other.

picture tag

The rules of this "tag" are to post the fourth picture in the fourth photo folder on your computer. Then tag four friends. It's just fun to see what picture will come up.



This picture is Eddie surfing "Cloud Break" in Fiji when he went in 2006
Ok so I'm not at home and I'm on Eddie's computer. The tag said 4th folder 4th photo. This photo was in a folder all by itself and the third folder is titled FIji. So one could assume that this photo should have been in the third folder. If that was the case the photo that would have been tagged would be this one:



This is a photo of Susanna on the Stk Youth Pioneer Trek. Which is kind of funny because she tagged me!

So I need to tag 4 people.... Morgan, Bethany, Christine, and Jessica

Weekend Update

This weekend I was sick with a sinus infection and ended up staying home and laying on the couch or in bed for 3 days. Friday while I had a little energy I took my prescription over to Vons to be filled. Then I had to go to Target and get a few things for the house and some Sudefed. My next stop was Lassens (health food store) to re stock up on my "holistic" regimen. Back to Vons to get my antibiotics... and the pharmacist tells me that what Eddie prescribed me I'm allergic to (joy oh joy) So I text Eddie with the pharmacies phone # and ask him to switch it to a Z pack. By now my energy is zapped and I head home. The Sudafed works good but doesn't allow me to sleep. I read an entire book on Friday, "Shopaholic takes Manhattan". I saw the movie a couple weeks a go and loved it! Saturday I spent on the couch watching all the TV shows I had recorded on DVR and haven't had the time to watch yet. I watched a lot of political talk shows. So now besides being sick, I'm pissed off over our governments handling of the economical crisis we are in. Sunday I woke up with a raging headache on top of all the other ailments I've been dealing with. I decided not to go to church. So back to the couch and more TV. By the time church was over my headache was gone :) but not my cold :(
I figured that I had been on antibiotics long enough that I wasn't a huge risk, so I went to the Stk girls camp meeting last night. (I think those people got me sick to begin with) Good meeting glad I went. I think I faked it pretty good. Anyway... Today is Monday and its back to work, so maybe I will take some Sudafed and pretend that I'm over this cold. I am feeling better but I still sound a little plugged up and my ears keep popping. I will keep my mask on and no one should be the wiser (unless they hear my seal barking cough). The worst part about a hygienist being sick is the runny nose into the mask. It can be truly disgusting. That's why I'm taking the sudafed today. Hopefully I will sleep tonight!