knock. knock. Anybody out there? This thing on?

I wasn't sure I even remembered the password to this blog. Just testing.

Let's see...what's up 'round here...

The new deck is getting much usage now that we got a "Big Green Egg" (a Christmas surprise for Alex mostly from my parents with some cash input from me as well. We had a big Christmas this year at home and ate and unwrapped presents for hours. Good Times.)

Dang that thing can cook a mean ANYTHING perfectly. (The Big Green Egg, that is.)

This summer we hope to get landscaping phase deaux of the backyard done.

My hair is slowly being dyed light brown..having been black all winter. Since I stopped tanning there really was no choice. I didn't want to look goth in my 40s. So NOT hip.

There is a love connection between Kismet (dog) and Effie (cat). First thing every morning Kismet finds Effie and begins grooming her...even the inside of her ears. Effie sits and just purrs. It's creepy but adorable at the same time. Things like this are normal in our home.

A few weeks ago Alex saw a schoolbus quickly heading towards her whilst she was stopped at light...with no brake lights comimg on...it smashed into the car behind Alex, which smashed into Alex's car, which smashed into the car in front of Alex. This is a good test of a Smart car and it's steel cage. Alex drove away from the accident. The other cars didn't. Wooo HOOOOO! Take that all you Smart haters. 4 car pile up and the Smart car WINS! Not that it doesn't require repairs...it does. Alex is sporting a nice Ford rental and a neck that isn't 100% right now but that's the bright side...(I mean the car not being demolished is the bright side, not that Alex still turns her head funny and is getting to know a doctor...get well punkin.)

Went to Myrtle Beach, Destin, visited both families this year as well as friends.

I was a weight loss coach for a spell and I am also a reviewer for some sites for fun. Freebies such as a vacuum cleaner, new hard drive, video editing software...(things I got this month)...it's like Santa Claus comes via the UPS man every week and I love it. However, my full time job is still intact--I just decided to have a job and a few spares in this economy. I think I need to stop that though as my full-time job, I just learned, is about to explode. Moving to a new office, getting 30 new coworkers...all in February. Should be interesting. I am used to the little office and that will be odd. Really odd. But it's all good. I haven't seen my new office yet and am not sure how my position and duties might change either. Alex continues plugging away at be a saucerous/sauceress/making sauces/feelin' saucy.

I need to videotape the house...it's changed so much inside. We just put up some cool shelves in the art studio, we got a new tv and tv stand for the workout room so the huge armoir no longer takes up a good deal of the workout space, curtains in the living room, paint in the workout room, new rug in the dining room, whipped out some more paintings...we've been plugging away hard at the nesting thing.

Now after working and playing harder than ever in 2009 we've decided 2010 is the year of relaxation. I quit the weight loss coaching just last week (but dang that was rewarding watching people shrink.), Alex is working less, and by golly we do a lot of deck sitting and grilled food eating and I am in a homemade bread baking phase that requires commercial bags of yeast due to my massive kneading and baking habits of said aromtic grain. At least one loaf a week, often more.

We look foreward to more reviewing...of 2010, the year...not products.

I hope it's all 5 star reviews.

And I still pinch myself that I live in our house. I fricken love that big kitchen, uber deck, open floor plan, and (pinch pinch pinch) finally having my own studio and workout room. With all our cooking I'd be one chunky monkey without that workout room. We both would.

Thanks God! Shout out to ya! Love my life... Still do.

Disturbia

So last night I pulled into our neighborhood and saw a man with a woman under his arm, putting her into a large semi. Not the kind of thing you see every day just pulling in with some groceries in your car after shopping and minding your own business.

But then again, it's not every day they are filming the movie "Machete" in one's neighborhood either.

So our friends Rob and Lori (shout out!) were on the sidewalk and I stopped the car to chat and said I'd go round up Alex and the dogs and meet em back for dinner and a movie. Without the dinner. And watching the movie from the sidewalk...but I'll get to that in a second...first, here is the plot and cast of characters:

Machete (Danny Trejo) is a renegade former "Mexican Federale". He roams the streets of Texas after a shakedown from drug lord Torrez (Steven Seagal). Benz (Jeff Fahey), a spin doctor, tells Machete that McLaughlin (Robert De Niro), a corrupt senator, is sending hundreds of illegal immigrants out of the country and that he must be killed. He offers him $150,000 to kill McLaughlin. Attempting to murder the Senator, Machete is double-crossed and is shot in the neck. Now on the run, Machete goes after Benz and his men with the help of Padre (Cheech Marin), his "holy" brother, April (Lindsay Lohan), a socialite with a penchant for guns, and his love interest, Luz (Michelle Rodriguez), a saucy taco slinger. Meanwhile, they are being watched and tracked by Sartana (Jessica Alba), a sexy U.S. Immigrations and Customs Enforcement agent with a special interest in the blade slinger.

sounds...um...interesting, huh?

So the house where they are filming is on our street a few houses away and I'd never have guessed all that goes on to film something...we passed a paramedic's tent which seemed very boring to be one of those paramedics because they just sat there next to their first aid supplies for hours, a mini cafe kinda place (okay craft services or whatever), gazillions of generators, the police, people on cranes with lighting....and about 200 people with headsets and/or walkie talkies standing and/or running around.

Like an ant farm.

If the ants were people and carried cameras and equipment, dontchaknow.

It was fun to watch them film. At one point Danny Trejo (main character) came out of the house, with blood (fake blood unless something REALLY unexpected happened in that house!) and asked Rob Rodriquez a question. Danny had his hair all stringy and had a big tattoo. Then we saw Jessica Alba come out and mill around and go through some wadrobe pieces they had on the street. (there was as much action on the street as in the house, trust me.) We talked to a woman in production who came over to admire the two most beautiful dogs on the planet, there with us just waiting to be discovered...and become the next "Benji"...he he

(if you don't know who Benji is, I curse your youth with jealousy.)

then Alex couldn't wait another minute to go watch the first episode of Top Chef Las Vegas so we decided to move along move along...this was, however, after Kismit started barking like mad so, should you see the movie and see a scene in a very modern home and hear a little dog barking in the background...

...that's m' girl!!


(and it was a plastic prop woman he had under his arm, by the way.)

say cheese!

Im unhappy with my camera right now which seems to be overexposing...consequently, until it goes on a visit to Nikon, there will be no pics posted.

Anyhoo...

Alex and I went to an interesting event last weekend that could be smelled from the hallway of the Hilton outside the ballroom even with the doors shut.

peaked your interest?

I found out about the American Cheese Society last June when on a quest to find the best blue cheese made for my dad for fathers day, as he loves blue cheese and buys everything he'd want for himself--leaving gift giving to be creative for his loved ones...so I found Roque Creamery blue cheese and had their gourmet basket shipped to him because I discovered it was awarded several blue ribbons at last year's cheese festival which was somewhere like San Francisco and had the top cheese experts from the world as judges.

So, during this quest, I also discovered the ACS cheese judging would be, for the first time, here in Austin this year.

They have a convention for cheese makers and artisans for a few days and then the judging and that's all closed to the public...but then after the judging is over, for 75 benjamins you can get a ticket to go in and taste, with complimentary wine and sides, every cheese of every kind entered into the competition.

There were about 2,000 different kinds of cheese.

That ballroom will smell like cheese for weeks.

There was vanilla goat cheese, there was cheese with lavendar flowers and other beautiful flowers in it, there was mozzarella in all kinds of oils, there was chipotle cheddar, there were mixtures like jack cheese and flavored goat cheese, there were names like "old goat creamery cheese", there was black truffel cheese, and good ideas such as a WONDERFUL goat cheese rolled in cranberries which was not only beautiful but delish...and I will be recreating that one during the holidays.

And tons of crackers, breads, foccacia, chocolates, olives yada yada yada to go with.

The cheeses were judged in each category such as flavored goat cheese, regular goat cheese, cheddars, blue cheeses, yogurt, butter, whatever...

then they had a table with the best of show cheeses.

I many, many of them went in my belly.

The funny thing was to be surrounded by people who literally fly in each year to this event who are cheese snobs and say things like "I must say I am surprised that this one got second place and I find the notes all over the place. Do you find that the depth isn't what you'd expect and that it is uncanny in it's overtures?" or whatever. They made me laugh. Just eat the cheese. Top your cheese with some cheese topping and hush. Cheese is good.

The next day, on Sunday, they put the cheeses brought for sale to the public for a steep discount of what they'd cost in the gourmet specialty stores. They don't want to fly home with cheese after cartin' it all here, dontchaknow.

but we skipped that event. I didn't want to look at cheese for a week after the night before.

p.s. I did my research well. Guess who one the best of show as the best cheese overall out of ALL cheeses in ALL categories?

Roque Creamery blue cheese.
The one I bought my daddy for dad's day.
Last year they won Best Blue cheese but this year they took home the big one.

**pats self on back**

I will add it made us decide to do a cheese night on our BRAND NEW ENORMOUS BACKYARD DECK WE JUST HAD BUILT AND LOVE once a week for dinner.

and we'll discuss the tonality, depth and overtures while lookin' at the trees and surrounded by doggies at our feet. I kid on the discussion...we'll be too busy eatin'.

hey there strangers

what's up?

1. big ol' deck in the backyard underway in spite of the fact it's too dang hot to start up a grill in Austin without heat stroke

2. Much like Benjamin Bratt, I decided to get younger. And I did.

3. I also have continued my weight loss obsession. Which truly now has become an obsession, admittedly. So much so that I was hired to teach weight loss clinics at 2 big offices during my own lunch hour twice a week. And I did it. I can't say how this mindset came about but if I'm to develop a midlife crisis obsession then I would assume health, rather than fast cars, is a good cheap way to go. I can't stop myself but the only drawback is having to buy tiny clothes. And, quite frankly, I just don't consider that a drawback.

4. Alex is catching on to all my latest obsessions, God love her. Actually the deck was her obsession and I went along with that so it all equals out.

5. After a million years of effort, I finally got my vision straightened out. Perhaps that is why I decided to work on number 2.

6.Other than that it's just too dang hot to do anything else but stay inside, look at the new deck, work out, and cook diet food.

So the circle continues.

Also I frequently have to convince Alex that we are in no need of:

1. an alpaca
2. a giraffe
3. chickens
4.a zipline

but that's a whole other story.

Time-Lapse Across China

Time-Lapse Across China


my mom will totally understand that there is no doubt he didn't have to ASK anyone in China to come up and stare at him and get in the video. We've been there...personal space around an American is not an option. Our tourguide explained that, for most, the only place they see an American is in the movies so to them...we are that exciting and it's the same as seeing an actress. I have stories.

But that's not the point, (merely an anecdote to amuse my mom), this is a cool video.

Senor Frogs in San Juan...a stop on the cruise

I tagged this on another site as "bible study". It will be pretty funny if anyone takes that seriously.

we haven't downloaded our cruise pics yet, but these were done by the ship's photographer