Archive for the 'Food' Category

charmaspice

Happy May Day!

Published
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charmaspice
on May 1, 2006
in Food and Housework
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So….did you run around your May Pole today? We didn’t either….there’s always next year! So….it’s been a busy weekend around here. On Saturday we got up to go out to breakfast with our friend Matt at the Omelette Shop. Yummy as alwasy! And then we came home to do some stuff around the house. Brad worked on his car (see his blog), Clare played in the yard, and I did some yard work. It was finally time to mow the lawn for the first time this season, so I did the back on Friday and the front on Saturday. I finally finished the flower bed project that I started last weekend, as you can see in the photo below.

On Sunday we did some relaxing in the AM, and then decided to head out to see “The Wild” at the mall theater. I think Clare said it best 10 minutes before it ended, “Let’s leave, this movie is BORING.” We convinced her to stay, and she changed her mind after seaing the final song & dance number. Then we walked around the mall for a bit, and Clare played in the play area. She even got some new Dora sandals for the summer at Payless. Afterwards it was to Taco Bell for our monthly Sunday Dinner.

Today we got up and headed to the post office to mail the city taxes….stupid Siemens, and them not getting that right! We stopped into the Kava House for some coffee (chocolate milk for Clare), and then decided to head up to get Clare’s hair cut. I’ve been battling the tangles in her hair forever now, and it’s only getting worse. She runs from me, throws her hands up, and only makes the tangles worse then when we started. So this morning was the last straw! I love the long hair, but it was time for it to go. I had warned her too many times, and I needed to follow through with my threat. We went to Snip It’s….it’s a GREAT place to go. Clare was very intimidated about going, but once she got there and saw how cool the place was she was excited. Snip It’s is a barber shop/salon TOTALLY geared towards kids. They take the kids back with this ticket that they turn in at the end for a prize from their prize machine at the end. Clare did an awesome job too, especially since it was her first time getting her hair cut in a place like this. I had done it at home until we started growing the bangs out. She’s far to wiggly for me to do it anymore. It’s a cute little bob-style cut that’s shoulder length, and has layers for texture. Her bangs frame her face, and now she can play without looking too much like a sheepdog. She likes it, and thought that it was cool. I took some pics, and will try to get Brad to put them up asap. I also took a video, in which she told some of her famous knock knock jokes! Anyway, it’s back to the laundry that is in desperate need of being done, and then Clare wants to go for a walk.

dead headphonist

Mmmm… Sushi.

Published
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dead headphonist
on April 23, 2006
in Food
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We made Sushi at home tonight (above is an actual picture of our actual homemade sushi). It was a messy affair, but it turned out well. Thanks to Beeko for the sushi rice recipe!

dead headphonist

Finally home…

Published
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dead headphonist
on April 22, 2006
in Food, Local and Music
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Today was a -busy- day. We started out about 9 this morning for some coffee and baked goods at the Wealthy Street Bakery… mmm… Char had a “Townie”, which is basically an elephant ear rolled into the shape of a muffin. Neat and good! I had a scone and about half of an almond bearclaw. Clare ate almost an entire cinnamon roll. After the Bakery, we stopped into Art of the Table, a neat shop next to the bakery that sells all sort of things (including mixed 6 packs of all sorts of oddball beers from around the world). I think we ended up with a bottle of wine and a bottle of sparkling hard cider from Black Star Farms.

After this, I needed to make a trip to get some tools to work on my car. First on our stops was Harbor Freight. I picked up some jack stands, some torx sockets and a metric allen wrench set. I really needed allen sockets, but they were out. $10 for the set wasn’t bad anyway. While I was in Harbor Freight, Char and Clare spent some quality time next door at Big Lots. Char picked some lawn edging for the little project out front and some baskets to organize our spices.

After this little diversion, it was off to Sears to price floor jacks. I ended up getting a 3 ton model on sale for $70. Sears actually had a better price than Harbor Freight on jacks (and a better warranty). They even had a few models that were cheaper, but the one I got looked more sturdy that the cheaper models. I also picked up 4 sizes of allen sockets (wasn’t sure which one I needed) and a socket extension set. All things I need to fix the veedub. It’s a little hard to drop the tranmission pan without getting the car up in the air. I passed on the creeper, but I’ll probably pick one up soon. I’ve spent enough on tools for at least a month. There goes my music budget… hehe.

We headed back into the mall after loading this haul in the car and spent some time walking, talking, and shopping. We picked up a few tidbits of sale items at the Disney store and stopped to let Clare play at the play area. Then we dropped into KB Toys to browse around. We got Clare a Tinkerbell poster for her room.

Then we headed to one of the sporting goods stores and got Clare a soccer ball. Her uncle Dan would be proud… it’s an Adidas ball. :) This’ll probably get me off of my fat ass this summer and move around a bit.

After chilling at home for a couple of hours, we headed to Qdoba for dinner and then to Meijer for supplies for tomorrow’s dinner. We’re planning home-made Sushi. We’ll let you know how it goes.
And now we’re home and watching TV. Tomorrow… weather permitting, the car is on my short list.

dead headphonist

good good fryday

Published
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dead headphonist
on April 14, 2006
in Food
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Whoa, it’s NICE outside. Char and I spent a good portion of the afternoon tooling about while Clare was at home with the babysitter. We had a coffee at the bookstore and went to Bed Bath & Beyond to pick up a couple of things. Char’s scale broke, so we picked up an inexpensive replacement, we scorched a pan a few months back so we replaced it. Cuisinart has some really nice inexpensive pans at BB&B, and we picked up a neat knifeblock since we outgrew ours.

The knife block is neat. It doesn’t have slots, but has a whole bunch of small rods packed into a square frame. This let’s you put whatever shaped knives you have whereever in the block you like. It’s a really neat concept and was less expensive than other knife blocks, so we decided to give it a shot. Besides… we had two 20% off coupons, so we saved a little cash.

Tomorrow is Veedub Day. I’ll be flushing the cooling system. Wish me luck. Hopefully, I’ll remember to snap some more pictures.

dead headphonist

sunday-sunday-sunday

Published
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dead headphonist
on March 19, 2006
in Food
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So… Taco Bell. Yes, once again, we spent a Sunday night eating refrieds and cheese wrapped in varying degrees of tortilla. This is mostly due the fact that we have no food in the house and got back from spending a weekend at the parental units’. The good news (in case you’re wondering), is that I finally, after approximately two years, have my VW back! It runs and made the trek back to GR without a hitch.

I believe it possible that there always was something wrong with the transmission on that car… it seems to have a lot more power now. The shift pattern is also different, which I’m not sure is normal. I got pretty good gas mileage on the way up, so I don’t think it’s a problem… it just seems a little weird to be at 3000 RPM on city streets and not have it shift… seems to not shift into third until I get up to about 35mph… fourth isn’t seen until I get to about 50-60mph. I like the added power of the delayed shift, and the revs aren’t high (about 3500-4000 when it shifts), so I’m not too worried about it. It’s just shifting later than it used to.

Anyway… next course of action is to get the rust and wrinkles out of it. That’ll be another trip during warmer weather. At some point, I’ll take some pictures of the “before” so that “after” I have something to compare to. Almost two years of sitting still has had it’s tole on that little multi-colored Golf.

Everything else is pretty well here in the GR… there are some videos taken with the new camera of Clare playing the harmonica. Check ‘em out if you get a chance.

Off to the salt mines…

dead headphonist

Back from Adult Happy Fun World.

Published
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dead headphonist
on March 12, 2005
in Alcohol, Art, Family and Food
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Hey all. Well… it’s been a crazy couple of weeks. Two
weeks ago last Thursday, Matt called us and invited Char and I to his
and Tracy’s wedding (in Las Vegas). Of course, as would be
expected, we went… on a week’s notice (well… actually more like 9
days notice, but who’s counting??). Anyway… it was definitely the best time we’ve had in a while. On Matt & Tracy’s recommendation, we also scored a couple of tickets to Zumanity, which is a very adult themed Cirque Du Soleil. It was certainly one of the best live shows I’ve ever seen.

The wedding was absolutely perfect. It was held outside of
Vegas, in Boulder City, at a ranch for abused and neglected
children. Some of the proceeds from the wedding went to the
ranch. It was a beautiful, perfect night and those guys deserved
to have it that way. I couldn’t have imagined a better
scene. We’ll post some pictures later this weekend of our trip
and the wedding. Matt and Tracy we soooo happy. We are
ecstatic for them and wish them happiness for the rest of their days.

After the wedding, they took us out to Picasso at the Bellagio.
‘Oh my’ is all we can say about what might very well have been the
single best meal of our lives. Of course, this was another perfect
setting, dining amongst paintings by the great Picasso, overlooking the
famous fountains of the Bellagio. Simple amazing (and Matt– you
guys sooo didn’t have to do that!). :)

We also did some shopping while we out there. I found a nice pot
for a good price (an Artisan’s Guild piece for $40). The shopping
in Vegas is actually very good and there are bargains to be found if
you are patient. It seems there are lots of stores that always
have %50 off sales. The pot was %80 off; marked down from $185,
though I think $40 is a more reasonable price than $185 anyway.

Of course, we picked up a fair amount of the usual tourist junk.
I increased my shot glass collection by nine. hehe.
Speaking of alcohol… Don’t drink in Vegas if you’re looking to
get drunk. Drinks are expensive and weak. The only saving
grace is that it appears that no one in Vegas makes a bad drink.
They are always definitely tasty, even drinks on the floor of the
casino.

Yes… there were some nickels dumped in those infernal machines.
I think we might have dropped $20 on the whole gambling thing. I
knew before that it wasn’t my scene, but Char had never done it before,
so she gave it a shot. She quickly realized that, in fact,
gambling is actually pretty boring and we moved on to throwing our
money away in more creative ways (like drinking and shopping). :)

It was an excellent trip, though after three days, we were ready to
come home. I’m not sure we’ll ever go back there, but we did have
fun and it was nice to get away from cold, snowy, overcast Michigan and
into some sunny 75F for a few days.

Hope all is well with everyone. Keep on keepin’ on.

dead headphonist

Blogging for the sake of blogging…

Published
by
dead headphonist
on October 23, 2004
in Family and Food
. 0 Comments

Well… another fun filled day of consumerism has come to an end.
We decided that since it was raining, we’d head over to the big mall
for some money-spending. We came upon some awesome deals on
Calphalon at Marshall Field’s that we couldn’t pass up. Nice
pans… I love the Calpholon that we already have, and the new stuff
will be a welcome addition. Clare had a good time riding
the carosel at the mall, and we took a nice ride out in the country
afterwards that ended up in Kalamazoo. Kzoo in the fall is such a
wonderful experience. I miss that town a lot, but home is in
Eastown, a home I’ve really grown to love, too. Hope this message
finds everyone in good health and good spirits and I must remind
everyone as the time approaches… please remember to vote.