Transformers

Transformers was awesome! Go see it as soon as possible!

Putting my Thursday in Perspective

Happy Thursday. I wish there was one more day before tomorrow because I have a ton of stuff to do before 3 pm tomorrow afternoon. Because I am finally getting my ass up the mountain to go visit Mak and Kate (and about 12 other people from college, were going camping, I was only invited because this guy I dated in college and his wife who hates me can't make it). So, today was good. Pretty Good. Well, at least my workout was good. And tonight Brian and Pam, a couple I met while out with Jill for one of her coworkers' birthdays, have invited me to the sneak preview of the Transformers movie because they had an extra ticket. So yay! Public service announcement: If you have to polish a sample of aluminum dross for XRD and optical microscopic analysis, don't wet polish it because it will dissolve, and with it a half a days worth of work needlessly stressing you out right before your weekend. I also wanted to tell you guys that I added a new link to the right over there. Going on 27 is this guy's blog about being in the Peace Corp in Cameroon, it's pretty new, but interesting to read. Granted he makes me feel a little shallow, but I can deal with that in exchange for a good read.

Pink is the New Apartment?

Check this out PinkPrankProject

Top Chef

I am addicted to Bravo's reality shows. Right now, it's Top Chef, which is one of my favorites, every week I am both amazed at the chefs' creativity, and inspired to create something new of my own. This week the chef's were challenged to reinvent classic comfort food with a healthy, lower cholesterol face lift, and they all just butchered the challenge. They could have really had fun with this, and considering the comfort food renaissance that is happening right now, they should have had no problem. Their recipes were uninspired, uninventive and way too literal. One girl had to reinvent Franks and Beans, she did a store bought chicken sausage and lentils. Boring, but I got to thinking... My favorite thing about Franks and Beans is that sweet sauce that binds everything together, and those soft, mushy beans. I like the idea of chicken sausage, and let's not kid ourselves, there's no way I'm making my own, store bought sounds good to me, and I've got a bit of a hard on for cannelloni beans right now, tiny white beans with just the right texture for a recipe like this. But that sauce... I'm still thinking, definitely some figs or fig jam to add sweetness, but to balance it out, maybe braising the sausages in white wine and dijon? Maybe throwing in some kale or mustard greens for a little bit of bitterness? Mushrooms? Garlic? A tart granny smith apple grated on top? Some peppery arugula? I'll have to think about it a little more, I'm excited to try it, I'll let you know how it goes.

Atlanta Slaw Dog

Oh yeah baby, that's what I'm talking about. That would be a grilled 97% fat free Hebrew National dog topped with raw bermuda onion, cheddar cheese, chile con carne, and cole slaw. A side of grilled sweet potato chips, and I know you're jealous. To make up for my lunchtime excess, I kept it healthy for dinner, but still tasty.

My Kind of Monday Night

Last night I went to a great yoga class, and I was going to go climbing afterward, but my arms were worked, so that didn't happen. I stopped at the grocer and picked up some great fresh produce. I love shopping right after yoga, because even though I am super hungry, all I want is super healthy food. For dinner I made my favorite whole wheat pasta with minced red onion (raw), diced tomato, avocado and grilled zucchini, finished with a little olive oil and lemon juice and lots of cracked pepper. It tastes better than it looks, so no pictures. Since I had the grill all fired up for the zucchini, I threw some fruit on as well. Although the bananas looked great, they just weren't ripe enough to taste good, maybe in a couple of days. It was a good thing I threw a Pluot on as well, with just a tiny glaze of oil and a sprinkle of vanilla sugar, grilled stone fruits are some of my favorites on the grill.

For all those folks at WaMu

Shame on me

I would like to take this opportunity to apologize to my friend Sarah for misspelling her name countless times over the past few months. Sorry buddy, I'm an ass.

No More Fun

I'm not doing anything fun again until July. I have no money, I have been slacking on my workouts, I have too much work to do, and now I'm sick. Bummer, but this week I just want to chill out on the couch with the menagerie and watch the Rockies.

Gina!

So, I'm going to have to work this weekend. Bummer, I know, but the reason I need to work this weekend is because Gina is in town, and we got absolutely wrecked last night. I stopped at work this morning to pick up some things I could work on at home, headed home and parked it on my couch. Poor Jill has to work all day. I don't know what we were thinking. Last night we met for happy hour at Jax and had some oysters and some cocktails. Despite our best efforts, we weren't able to talk Gina into eating somewhere on Pearl street and we headed north to Ratta Trattoria. Boy am I glad she was so insistent! Probably the best Italian meal I've had in Colorado ever. After dinner we went and played some pool, then dancing. Today I am so hurt, I had a coca-cola, a couple of darvacet, and ordered a pizza. So yeah, working tomorrow.

Waylaid or way-laid

So, back in this postI wrote that Jill and I were on our way to a bar when we got waylaid after running into some old friends and never made it. Jill was showing her parents some pictures this weekend, and when she showed her dad this one, he mentioned that he had seen it already, "the one where we got waylaid"... Jill had never heard this phrase before, and thought her dad was saying she got way-laid. Like really, really laid. I laughed so hard I nearly split my pants.

Uh-Oh

Despite my best efforts I'm a little sweet on Drew. I mean The Lurker. Not good to name the puppy. Funny thing about The Lurker, his friends call him that too. Blue shirt friend called him that when we were sitting on the stoop, and Jill and I cracked up and revealed that we too call him The Lurker. Because apparently he lurks. A lot. He was a little miffed, but admitted to the lurking. It was kind of hilarious.

Garage

First off, I should mention that these pictures were taken about 9 pm, and we were more than a little drunk. And you can tell by looking at us. We were planning to go to the Rockies game, and never made it because they were sold out of Rock Pile tickets. Instead we ended up at Drew's house drinking beer on his stoop, and then went out to a bar called the Garage, it was fun. There was this game where in the middle of the bar there was a ring hanging from a string on the ceiling, and the point was to swing it and catch it on a hook on the opposite wall. Jill was good at it. I was not.

Boulder- Friday Night

I'm not sure what all my ladies got up to this weekend, I missed our gals Suzie and Sara, but Jill and I persevered alone. We headed out in Boulder, but alas we didn't take a single picture! But we did have a good time. I'll spare you the details. I have some fun pictures from Saturday night that I'll put up later. A couple things: July 11, the new HP movie is coming out, and then on the 21st the book. Yay! Gina is coming to town this weekend, so I may have to postpone camping with my dad. Everyone wish Frannie luck getting out of the Air Force so he can make it to his first day of the Air National Guard. I'm not going to see the Yankees in Denver, the pinche Rockies jacked the prices for those three games. Bullshit.

Napping

I'm a little worried about what Murph has been getting into so I decided to work from home today (research) so I could keep an eye on him. I didn't see him get into anything unusual, but I caught this great pic of him napping. He must have been dreaming about something because his tongue was sticking out and he was sort of running in place.

Before the Week is Over

I had better post these pictures of our fun Saturday night last week.

With the exception of the crazy red eyes (the camera's fault, not Suzie's) I am completely in love with this picture! I do have to admit that I made her pose for this one. She was on my team, and I didn't want to ruin her shot by blinding her with the flash. It payed off, we won!