Matt's Big Mouth

A few weeks ago Matt felt it necessary to prove how much he loves brownie batter and at the same time proved how big his mouth is...good job sweetie...good job.

A Saturday Adventure

What a busy Saturday this has been!

Our normal Saturdays consist of laundry and a trip to target. However, this one was much, much more!

This morning I got a call from my mom saying that it was the 23rd anniversary of she, my dad, and I being sealed in the temple. My mom and my dad wanted to do something special, but since everyone seems to be low on funds these days, had no ideas on what they should go do. This is when I sprung into action!

I first cooked us a lunch of Chili's Enchilada Soup (minus the chicken) that I got from someone earlier this week on facebook. It turned out to be pretty good....unless they were all lying to me and they really thought it sucked. I sure hope that wasn't the case.

After that, we all piled in the Jeep and headed to downtown Dallas to the Historic Bishop Arts District. Here we stopped by The Soda Gallery and browsed their HUGE selection of classic, hard to find, and foreign soda pop.

We weren't quite sure how it all worked since I had only read a small snippet about the store when browsing through a copy of Southern Living, but the owner happened to be there and was very, very helpful and nice.

On top of sodas, the store also carried comic books, classic candy, and other neat collector items.

Here is Mom and Dad posing with their soda finds.

And here are Matt and I with ours! In my hand I am holding a bottle of Almdudler, the national drink of Austria. The owner had just gotten a shipment of it in and did not plan on putting it out. Since I knew what it was and asked for it, he went into the back and unpacked 2 special bottles for us! I was really touched and excited. We will definitely be making The Soda Gallery a regular stop on our weekend errand runs for now on.

After shopping around a few of the cool artsy clothing and antique stores we were ready to continue our journey....but not until we popped open our sodas for the ride!

Here is Dad with his special root beer that the owner recommended.

And Matt with his...

And me with my Frosty Blue Cream Soda that I always drank as a kid! I was sooooo excited!

Next stop: The Farmer's Market!

Here we had samples of delicious fresh fruits and veggies and bought a few things to make a yummy Sunday brunch!

Here is Dad with some massive squash and zucchini, Mom with her bag of cherries, and Matt with his bag of big strawberries!

And me and Matt with my yummy orange bell pepper I got for only 50 cents!

Our Anniversary outing with Mom and Dad did not exceed them $10.00 and I think they had a lot of fun. I know we sure did!

Thanks Mom and Dad for indulging my 1st attempt at a double date and a costless one at that; especially on your anniversary! You are good sports!

After Mom and Dad left and Matt and I did our typical Saturday errand of grocery shopping (BTW, I used circulars for the first time this weekend and scored 6 grapefruit for $1.00 and 4 pints of cherry tomatoes for just $5.00 at Sprouts ! Go Me!!!) and all those other little stops; We decided it was high time to break into our special sodas!

This was our 6 pack carrier.

First we needed a pizza, so we stopped by Angelo and Vito's Pizzeria.

With this we drank our Almdudlers just like we did in Berlin last year. It was delicious.

Next came our after dinner soda.

Remember Crystal Clear Pepsi? I know it was one of my absolute favorites as a kid. Well, we found a crystal clear cola and it surely did not disappoint.

Sure it has the symbol of the Third Reich upon it and it is called Not Seekola (Say it out loud..."Nazi Cola"), but it was freaking good!Although soon after drinking it my arm kelp flying up at its own free will and I felt really angry. I don't know what that was all about...but I am DEFINITELY getting this soda again!

Finally we drank out last soda and it was a sad, sad moment.

This one was called, Blenheim Ginger Ale. The owner recommended this one to us soon after we had stunned him by asking for Almdudler. He said that it was the strongest Ginger Ale he's ever tasted and it was sure to burn all the way down.

He was right.

We won't be getting this one again.

And thus concluded our Saturday Adventures!

I am so exhausted that I know I'll sleep well tonight!

Hypoglycemia

My top 3 health problems I've always been completely frightened of developing are: 1) Allergy to peanuts, 2) Allergy to gluten, and 3) Diabetes.

Today it was bitter sweet experience to go to the doctor and find out that I am hypoglycemic.
It is bitter because it is very frustrating to find out that I have yet another health problem and that when my lab work comes back there could be even more. Bitter that I get the shakes/sweats/headaches and can pass out out of nowhere and my only cure is to eat some protein immediately. And bitter because being around people who stress me out can make it even worse (and I'm around those people every day at work).
Yet it was still sweet because hypoglycemia is the opposite of diabetes! So for now I can lock away at least one of my health fears and start eating more candy!!! Just kidding. :o)

What this really means is that this vegan has even more rules for eating! I'm going to have to eat even more beans, nuts and soy to try and keep a lot of protein in my body to slow down my episodes. In addition, I have to keep snacks on me all the time....looks like I need to go purse shopping for a bigger pantry!

Happy Chinese New Year!

This year Matt and I celebrated Chinese New Year!

(We'll use any excuse to eat Chinese food.)

For our nightly entertainment, I chose "Shaolin Soccer", which is one of the silliest movies I've ever attempted to watch in my life. Six or Seven years ago I swore I'd never sit through another 15 minutes of it again...but I was grasping at straws trying to find entertainment and I'm positive I could not have made it through a Jackie Chan or Jet Li movie. (Been there, done that) This time around though, Matt and I made it through the entire movie and actually enjoyed it!

For our dining pleasure I cooked up a feast fit for an emperor! Steamed rice, chow mein (I know 2 starches....not so healthy), stir fried veggies, and some hot and sour soup!

I think Matt liked it.

Now that is over, I have to start preparing for Groundhog Day which is my 3 favorite holiday! Only one week to go!!!

Man I've got to get a life....

LOST

It's Back! Lost is back! And with it of course came our famous, Jack Shepherd's pie!

As you see below I tried to add some pizazz to it this year by sticking some of the show's characters into the pie. However, Benjamin Linus showed up and beheaded the other cast members in true Lord of the Flies style and left their heads upon stakes....this was my excuse at least...it helped take the attention off of the fact that they were cut out poorly and made with coffee straws I found at work.

Here's to kicking off what will be another great season of Lost!

Ping Pong Champion...for the day

A month or so ago Matt's work moved to a building that use to be used by Google. When Google moved out, they left behind a few things; one of which was a ping pong table.
The discovery of the ping pong table stoked Matt and many of his co-workers and thus the daily battle of becoming that day's "Ping Pong Champion" was born.

Each evening over dinner I get a recap of who played who, who had nice shots, how many points were scored, and all the other ping pong news from work that day.

Today however, I got this picture in a text message while I was working.

Yes, he finally did it. Matt became the Ping Pong Champion of the day and received the honor of taking the belt (which has "Ping Pong" written in black sharpie so that it is not to be confused with a WWE Championship belt) back to his desk to show off.

Way to go sweetie! You have brought us great honor!

The Rain in Spain Falls Mainly On the Plain

The tickets have been purchased and the time scheduled off from work! We are officially vacationing in Madrid and Barcelona this May!

We had planned on going to Athens and getting some sun, but the sun on the beaches in Barcelona will work just fine this year; especially when ticket prices were dirt cheap! (Thank you US Scareways for crashing yet another plane...I just hope ours doesn't crash on the way there!)

Martin Luther King Jr Day!

This day has never been anything special to me. I never got it off from school (I was home schooled) and now that I'm an adult, I don't get it off from work....yet a lot of other people do...and that just doesn't seem fair. It really pisses me off actually.

This year I tried to take a new approach to it all and not be so hostile about all those that had a lovely day off while I worked my fingers to the bone at my desk. I decided that we too would celebrate MLK day! Sure we worked all day....but we could still have some good ole SOUL FOOD at the end of the day, just like everyone else!

Below is a picture of the meal I prepared.

Cornbread, potatoes, Fickin, and of course....greens! And I made those greens all by myself! I didn't even get Glory's (see below) from a can like a few of my co-workers advised.

I was so proud of my soul food. And the best part of it all.....I got to swat at Matt with a wooden spoon each time he came into the kitchen and say stuff like, "booooooy, you better skat".

3 Random Thoughts

Why does no one at the post office flinch when a shady looking man comes through the metal detector with his hands in his coat pockets and sets off all the sirens? He mailed his package to Pakistan with one hand still in his pocket and then left through the metal detectors again, setting them off...and no one flinched again. Is that normal? Did I just dodge death...again?

I think that all veg heads should look for their potential partner in Whole Foods while they're grocery shopping. Clearly you have more than one thing in common if you're both shopping there and both perusing the gluten free baking mixes. It just makes sense. Although I was scared today while picking up collard greens (for MLK day!) that the creepy looking man beside me, that was also buying greens, was going to strike up an awkward conversation...so maybe people already do that and I'm just out of the loop. That could explain the hard to find parking on Friday nights...

Why is everyone in this town in such a hurry to get where they're going...yet when they get there (in the store) they stop dead in their tracks and seem lost. More than a dozen times in an outing, I get stuck behind a woman in an aisle or doorway that is staring off into space perhaps wondering why she is there or what this store actually sells. It makes no sense.

My 25th Birthday!

Yesterday was my 25th birthday. My family celebrated it with me on Friday night with a dinner and orange cake. It was very nice, but I got no pictures because I've been so sick that I was embarrassed to have my photo taken. Last night I made some exceptions though.

To begin I came home from work and changed into my new papaya colored cashmere sweater I got from J-crew. I've wanted a cashmere sweater my whole life and finally one went on a good enough sale for me to justify buying it for my birthday. It was SOOOO cozy.

After that we went to Mattito's in the Frisco square. I haven't been to a Mattito's in 8 years, so I was excited to try it again. However, I have no idea if it was good or not because I realized that my taste buds are gone from me being sick and I couldn't even taste the jalapenos I was eating.

I guess I'll have to try eating there again some time.

Frisco Square is always so pretty and lit up. I like it there.

After dinner we went to OrangeCup for some frozen yogurt mixed with orange juice and all the fixins!

My cup is on the right with züm yogurt, granola, strawberries, bananas, and kiwi! Matt's is on the left with natural frozen yogurt, fruity pebbles, chocolate chips, and strawberries. I think Matt may have missed the idea of a healthy dessert with a few of his topping choices.

I imagine this was really yummy too, but I'll have to give it a second go when I can taste again and want to attempt putting dairy in my body. I don't think Matt enjoyed it too much though. Not enough sugar probably. :o)

Matt's gift to me will be horseback riding on Saturday if the weather and my sickness permits it. I'm really excited for it because I haven't been a a couple of years and I enjoy it a lot. I was really proud of him listening to things I mention I like and making the effort to find such a nice place to ride horses. It made for a very nice 25th birthday.

A Few Random Pictures

Last night while Matt was driving home, he let Tucker lay on his fleece pullover since Tucker loves all things cozy.

Before long Tucker began making a nest of the pullover which resulted in him making a few wrong turns and ending up stuck in a sleeve.
The hazards of being shaped like a hot dog.

Today I told Matt I was leaving to take Tucker for a walk. Before I left he insisted that I utilize the Christmas gift I received this year from his parents just long enough for him to take a picture. He really found more humor in this than I did.
The pink bottle on my hip is mace and in my hand is a sharp knife. You never know what might go down at the dog park...