Spring Fever

Last Friday both Zach and I took the day off work. We surely weren't expecting it to be so nice out but were pleasantly surprised with a wonderful 60 degree day.  You don't get a whole lot of those in February so we took advantage of it!  We had a casual lunch out at Jason's Deli and then headed to the Nelson Atkins Museum of Art. We have a "membership" so we like to try to go a few times a year. Zach loves the place. I like it, but get rather sleepy after an hour or so (it's so dark in there!!).  Luckily, the Sculpture Park is awesome and we can spend a good amount of time outside too. I thought it would be fun to take along the camera and play around. I have much to learn, that is for sure. After we hung out for a while, we stopped at Winstead's for some ultra-summery Cherry Limeaids and headed home. I got to go on a fabulous run outside through the neighborhood and we had yummy pizza for dinner while we watched random shows off the DVR. Definitely one of the best random days off in a while!

Curious George

 

Occasionally George likes to get up on top of the cabinets.  I believe this particular incident was caused by the vacuum. Oh man, that thing is SCARY!  He was perched up there for quite some time and then decided he wanted down but didn't wan to jump. He stood up on top of the pantry and meowed for a good few minutes until I finally saved him, cleaned him off and made a mental note that it might be time for a good top of the cabinets dusting....

Vintage Valentine

2001

This was taken around Valentine's Day back when I was a sophomore in college.... Ten Years Ago. [Moment of silence]. Back when wearing black pants to the bar was normal and Zach would go within 10 feet of an Abercrombie.  Wow, it really feels like yesterday, but at the same time seems like ages ago. Time flies when you are having fun, right!?

Happy Valentine's Day Zach!  

Loves You!

Valentine's Day Sugar Cookies

 

I spent all afternoon baking up my Valentine's Day sugar cookies. I had grand plans for these bad boys including trying out royal icing, but the day just got away fom me and I went with the old standby. I did try making chocolate sugar cookies. That turned to be a HUGE disaster.  The dough didn't chill long enough and it was just one big sticky mess. I ended up just plopping the dough on the cookie sheet and baking it up. Much to my surprise they are very tasty, just not super cute.  Oh well.

Happy Valentine's Day!

A Sporting Event

 

Thursday evening Zach and I attended a happy hour for Sporting KC. For those that don't know, that's the new name for the Wizzards, Kansas City's pro soccer team.  Zach has become a huge soccer fan in the past year or so. So, when he found out that they were building a fancy new soccer stadium for the team he was gung-ho! Through some other events, Zach has made friends with one of the reps for the Sproting so when we purchased a season ticket package (4 games) we got invited to this happy hour thing at their main office to check out the renderings for the new stadium.  Zach really wanted to go and it was close to my work so he picked me up and we headed over. 

 It was neat to see the office. It's in a loft downtown and was done quite well.  There were quite a few people there checking out everything. They also had an open bar. I requested a glass of white wine and it came in what might be the worlds largest wine glass. I'm fairly certain I had an entire half bottle of wine in there.  I knew I was in trouble when the bartender held up the bottle and said "eh, I'm just going to pour the rest in." Oh my! We chatted it up with a few of the Sporting staff, checked out the pictures and video tour then went about our merry way. I'm not really one for hobnobbing.  I would be a terrible socialite.

Check out the model of the new stadium. It looks pretty cool!

I felt so important with my own little name tag, even though I hate name tags. When I picked it up I noticed it was sitting right next to one that said "Mike Sweeney".  Oooh!   He never showed though.

So yeah, soccer.  Woo.

Behind the Scenes

 

A neat baker, I am not.  This is actually pretty clean and tidy for me when I'm cooking. By the end of it the whole counter will be covered in every measuring cup, teaspoon, spatula and mixing bowl I own. 

Thai Honey Peanut Chicken

I discovered Thai food through Weight Watchers Smart ones frozen meals. No really.  There are a few of them that I really love! So when this recipe poped up on my Google Reader, I knew I had to try it!  I  made this on the day of the blizzard and it was so easy and totally hit the spot! I will definitely be adding this to the rotation.

Thai Honey Peanut Chicken
from: The Tasty Kitchen via ThreeManyCooks

1 pound Chicken, In Chunks
¼ cups Soy Sauce
2 Tablespoons Honey
1 Tablespoon Lime Juice
1 teaspoon Minced Garlic (approximately 1 Large Clove)
1 Tablespoon Natural Peanut Butter (heaping Tablespoon Even Better)
½ teaspoons Curry Powder
1 teaspoon Sriracha (optional) - I used Chili Sauce

Mix ingredients and marinate chicken for 2-3 hours.

Cook chicken in the sauce over medium-high heat for 7-8 minutes or until chicken is done. Reduce heat to medium-low and add precooked veggies if desired. Serve topped with sesame seeds.

To thicken sauce if needed: reduce heat to medium-low and add a cornstarch slurry (1 teaspoon cornstarch in 1 tablespoon water). - I didn't need to do this.


 I doubled the recipe and I'm glad I did because Zach said the leftovers were delicious!  My only complaint? It was a bit on the salty side.  It also made my house smell like soy sauce for about 3 days, but it was worth it.

Big T

I can't believe I'm even posting this picture because, lets be honest here, I look terrible (no wonder mothers always tell you not to slouch!).  However, look how damn big my dog is!  He doesn't sit on his bum too often (I can imagine it isn't very comfortable putting all his weight on that tiny bony butt) but when he does we always go "HOLY COW HE'S SO HUGE!". I guess you never get used to it.

Sorry about the lack of non-dog pictures as of late.  I haven't had a lot of motivation to go out and take pictures with this craptastic weather we've been having. No more dog pictures this week though, I promise!

Snow Removal

This is the driveway of the house next door. Nobody has lived there in at least 6 months, however each time it snows, these people show up to shovel. I can only guess they are the realtors or hired by the realtor.  Not sure who the random kid is, he just showed up.

When it snowed blizzard-ed earlier this week the plows decided it would be best to pile all of the snow from the street into the two vacant houses' driveways. So there were these huge 7 ft mounds of snow covering a large part of the driveway. When these people showed up I didn't think there was any way they'd even try to shovel through it, but they have proven me wrong!  That guy is going to be sore tomorrow...  And no, I'm not going to help.  1) I'm terrible at shoveling and 2) I have a cold.  So there.

In other snow related news - I just got a Twitter update from our Greenwood news and it said that there are 45 mailboxes that are undeliverable because the town plowed all the snow into them. It said the mayor himself was going to go shovel them all out.  I find that hard to believe since this huge dead tree is still in my yard 7 months later...