Sometimes, you just have to gloat. And this last Saturday, I knocked off a major obstacle in the randonneuring world, a 400 km ride. 21 hours, 5 minutes.
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Thursday, December 16, 2010
Friday, November 12, 2010
The 'tas
Dayna and I broke away for a quick trip up to Oklahoma. And yes, climbing was involved.
We camped in deluxe style--space heater, laptop for movies, flushable toilets and hot showers. We arrived at the camp in the dark. Quickly made camp (in our church clothes) and hopped in the tent for a movie. The next morning, this is what we woke up to.
A little bit better picture once we were up and about...
We climbed the first day at Elk Slabs. The climbing was fun and easy. The approach, not so much. Seems the trails are a lot harder to find than one would expect. Fun nonetheless, and I will eventually drag Dayna back up there (now that we know where we are going). Oh, and shutterbug forgot her camera.
The second day, we headed over to the narrows area.
With our late start and our bad luck, the only other climbers in the refuge were on the route we wanted to climb. No biggie, as there were plenty of open routes. We climbed this route (picture from the bottom).
Conor getting ready to climb (just had to adjust the sleeves a bit)...
Climbing in progress...
Dayna at the top...
And one of our buddies who were everywhere...
The second day, we headed over to Mt Scott (highest point in the refuge). The refuge borders Ft Sill, which has some artillery units. They were having practice that day, and we could see where they were hitting the mountain across the lake from us. Pretty cool! I headed up a "5.7" called high anxiety, nothing like the 5.7 I did my first sport lead on. I seemed to forget the hand jams and the "power" moves high anxiety was requiring. All was well and I made it to the top. Dayna jammed her way to the top as well (just kidding, just a couple of jams were needed).
Using all my knowledge, I managed to burn my finger one night. The granite quickly took care of this. My finger after high anxiety (and washing my hands).
We heard about a rumored burger place up the road from Mt Scott. Naturally, we just had to go. We settled on the "seismic burger," which was a full pound of beef w/ bacon, onion and all the fixings. Supposedly, pure Texas Longhorn Beef (no hormones). It was awesome. We also had onion rings, freedom fries (the owner is apparently conservative) and fried peaches.
The owner also has a sense of humor...or does he???
To help settle our Burgers, we headed back into the Narrows to attempt the route the other people were on the other day, but felt there was not enough time (the gates are locked at "sunset," whatever that means) and didn't want to risk getting stuck. We took the time to grab a Christmas Card picture--what do you think?
A picture of me defeated from the early sunsets.
We woke the next morning to rain (all our stuff is out drying as I type). We packed up everything wet, cooked breakfast and left. We chatted with our kind "neighbors" for a bit, who kindly got us a cinnamon roll from a place we had read about online and told them about it. They made it, and we didn't, but they were kind enough to bring us one. And on the way out, we stopped at the Ft Sill Museum to see some "canons," aka artillery.
And, we'll leave you with this bit of happiness.
We camped in deluxe style--space heater, laptop for movies, flushable toilets and hot showers. We arrived at the camp in the dark. Quickly made camp (in our church clothes) and hopped in the tent for a movie. The next morning, this is what we woke up to.
A little bit better picture once we were up and about...
We climbed the first day at Elk Slabs. The climbing was fun and easy. The approach, not so much. Seems the trails are a lot harder to find than one would expect. Fun nonetheless, and I will eventually drag Dayna back up there (now that we know where we are going). Oh, and shutterbug forgot her camera.
The second day, we headed over to the narrows area.
With our late start and our bad luck, the only other climbers in the refuge were on the route we wanted to climb. No biggie, as there were plenty of open routes. We climbed this route (picture from the bottom).
Conor getting ready to climb (just had to adjust the sleeves a bit)...
Climbing in progress...
Dayna at the top...
And one of our buddies who were everywhere...
The second day, we headed over to Mt Scott (highest point in the refuge). The refuge borders Ft Sill, which has some artillery units. They were having practice that day, and we could see where they were hitting the mountain across the lake from us. Pretty cool! I headed up a "5.7" called high anxiety, nothing like the 5.7 I did my first sport lead on. I seemed to forget the hand jams and the "power" moves high anxiety was requiring. All was well and I made it to the top. Dayna jammed her way to the top as well (just kidding, just a couple of jams were needed).
Using all my knowledge, I managed to burn my finger one night. The granite quickly took care of this. My finger after high anxiety (and washing my hands).
We heard about a rumored burger place up the road from Mt Scott. Naturally, we just had to go. We settled on the "seismic burger," which was a full pound of beef w/ bacon, onion and all the fixings. Supposedly, pure Texas Longhorn Beef (no hormones). It was awesome. We also had onion rings, freedom fries (the owner is apparently conservative) and fried peaches.
The owner also has a sense of humor...or does he???
To help settle our Burgers, we headed back into the Narrows to attempt the route the other people were on the other day, but felt there was not enough time (the gates are locked at "sunset," whatever that means) and didn't want to risk getting stuck. We took the time to grab a Christmas Card picture--what do you think?
A picture of me defeated from the early sunsets.
We woke the next morning to rain (all our stuff is out drying as I type). We packed up everything wet, cooked breakfast and left. We chatted with our kind "neighbors" for a bit, who kindly got us a cinnamon roll from a place we had read about online and told them about it. They made it, and we didn't, but they were kind enough to bring us one. And on the way out, we stopped at the Ft Sill Museum to see some "canons," aka artillery.
And, we'll leave you with this bit of happiness.
Sunday, October 3, 2010
Thieves!!!
It wasn't too many years ago that I went inside a corner gas station to pay for my gas (this was before I believed in owning a credit card) and as I wrote out my check, the man behind the counter told me I had "an innocent face". It puzzled me, somewhat embarrassed me in front of the line of other customers, and I gave him a blank look. He insisted it was a compliment, and tried to explain I looked like a good, honest person. Nobody had ever told me that before and it came as a surprise to hear such a thing. I did thank the man and hurried on my way. It's nice to know that by our actions and countenance, hopefully people notice something different in us. This story came to mind the past few weeks over a recent incident.
I had never felt so upset, distraught, disturbed, anxious, nervous in my life. And for what?! I had done nothing wrong! I was bothered for hours afterwards before finally feeling somewhat settled, then peace, then laughter over the entire ordeal.
Over Labor Day weekend, Conor and I traveled down to Harlingen, TX. It was 5 1/2 hours from Houston, and near the border of Mexico. We went there to shoot a wedding and booked the event exactly a year earlier. Due to recent events, many border towns are no longer safe, so going into Mexico was definitely out of the question. I decided to make a weekend of it, then we could get settled in, see the area, check out the venues for the wedding, and have plenty of time to travel there and back. We arrived Friday evening and I checked in with our bride so she knew we had arrived. She asked if we could drive to her house the next day, so we knew where to go (she was getting ready there and wanted photos). We told her we would do that, and then also check out the church and reception.
The next day we slept in, then prepared for a day at the beach on South Padre Island, and headed out to find the bride's house and other venues. I drove, since I would be the one going to her house, and wanted to make sure I remembered it all. Our gps was stolen a couple months ago (I'll post about that another time.), so we looked up the addresses and wrote notes to get around. We arrived in the neighborhood, drove slowly past the houses, looking for the addresses, found it, went around the corner, turned around, and headed back out. We proceeded to the church, then onto the reception place in Brownsville. By this time we've travelled more than 20 miles from the bride's house. Due to construction we were on the feeder road and pulled up to a stop light. A car pulled up rather closely beside us and motioned for us to put our windows down. We thought they needed directions. A lady reached across her husband, taking photos of us with her pink camera phone. Did we really look that much like tourists?! That thought was cut short with screaming, ranting and raving. I looked more closely at the couple and recognized him as a man watering his bushes outside a neighboring house to the bride's family. We were accused of being at their house earlier and stealing from them, breaking into their vehicle. Then coming back to finish the job. I was trying to explain myself, and who we were, what we were doing there, Conor's telling them to call the cops, and my head is spinning all the while. Totally insane!!! Finally I told them we were there for Stephanie's wedding and the guy went silent, she kept going and informed us we don't belong in their neighborhood. The light changed--finally!!!!--and they went right, we went straight. I was in shock over all of this happening.
Not wanting to bother and upset the bride, I figured I would address the issue the following day when I arrived. It turns out the neighbors are actually really good friends with her parents and were attending the wedding. Sweet! LOL! The man realized they had wrongfully accused us, and went over that night to let them know what they had done and apologized and was rather embarrassed. The dad thought it was hilarious and told me they had all locked their car doors before I arrived to shoot. lol. Then the mom had us sit together during the wedding dinner to become better acquainted. Rather nice people, with a misfortunate mistake. After stepping back, I can see we looked suspicious, driving around slow, female driver, Conor & I had dark shades on, he had a ball cap, unshaven face--we both didn't look our best. Too funny!!! Definitely a wedding to remember! I love my job!!!!
Here's our mug shots. Oh, and our Starbucks gift cards the nice couple gave us, along with an apology card. We are forgiving souls, so there were no hard feelings, just a memorable story!
I had never felt so upset, distraught, disturbed, anxious, nervous in my life. And for what?! I had done nothing wrong! I was bothered for hours afterwards before finally feeling somewhat settled, then peace, then laughter over the entire ordeal.
Over Labor Day weekend, Conor and I traveled down to Harlingen, TX. It was 5 1/2 hours from Houston, and near the border of Mexico. We went there to shoot a wedding and booked the event exactly a year earlier. Due to recent events, many border towns are no longer safe, so going into Mexico was definitely out of the question. I decided to make a weekend of it, then we could get settled in, see the area, check out the venues for the wedding, and have plenty of time to travel there and back. We arrived Friday evening and I checked in with our bride so she knew we had arrived. She asked if we could drive to her house the next day, so we knew where to go (she was getting ready there and wanted photos). We told her we would do that, and then also check out the church and reception.
The next day we slept in, then prepared for a day at the beach on South Padre Island, and headed out to find the bride's house and other venues. I drove, since I would be the one going to her house, and wanted to make sure I remembered it all. Our gps was stolen a couple months ago (I'll post about that another time.), so we looked up the addresses and wrote notes to get around. We arrived in the neighborhood, drove slowly past the houses, looking for the addresses, found it, went around the corner, turned around, and headed back out. We proceeded to the church, then onto the reception place in Brownsville. By this time we've travelled more than 20 miles from the bride's house. Due to construction we were on the feeder road and pulled up to a stop light. A car pulled up rather closely beside us and motioned for us to put our windows down. We thought they needed directions. A lady reached across her husband, taking photos of us with her pink camera phone. Did we really look that much like tourists?! That thought was cut short with screaming, ranting and raving. I looked more closely at the couple and recognized him as a man watering his bushes outside a neighboring house to the bride's family. We were accused of being at their house earlier and stealing from them, breaking into their vehicle. Then coming back to finish the job. I was trying to explain myself, and who we were, what we were doing there, Conor's telling them to call the cops, and my head is spinning all the while. Totally insane!!! Finally I told them we were there for Stephanie's wedding and the guy went silent, she kept going and informed us we don't belong in their neighborhood. The light changed--finally!!!!--and they went right, we went straight. I was in shock over all of this happening.
Not wanting to bother and upset the bride, I figured I would address the issue the following day when I arrived. It turns out the neighbors are actually really good friends with her parents and were attending the wedding. Sweet! LOL! The man realized they had wrongfully accused us, and went over that night to let them know what they had done and apologized and was rather embarrassed. The dad thought it was hilarious and told me they had all locked their car doors before I arrived to shoot. lol. Then the mom had us sit together during the wedding dinner to become better acquainted. Rather nice people, with a misfortunate mistake. After stepping back, I can see we looked suspicious, driving around slow, female driver, Conor & I had dark shades on, he had a ball cap, unshaven face--we both didn't look our best. Too funny!!! Definitely a wedding to remember! I love my job!!!!
Here's our mug shots. Oh, and our Starbucks gift cards the nice couple gave us, along with an apology card. We are forgiving souls, so there were no hard feelings, just a memorable story!
New Bedding!
Change is good! I was so excited to purchase a new bedspread for our room. The other was nice, but totally didn't match the bright, crazy green I painted in our room. Conor wanted color . . . and he got it! Of course our cherry furniture it further enhanced by the green on the walls, and clashes even more with our dark teak floors. But, I tried! Trying to work with what we already had. The new bedding did help and it was fun to change the look.
In July we purchased a new mattress. Sooo comfy! I sleep much better and no longer wake up every time I turn sides. Yeah! In August we finally bought a rug for under our bed. We meant to do it since we had moved it since the bed slides all over the wood and has unfortunately scratched our floors. : ( Love the rug! It pulled in the look of the room even more. No pic yet--maybe after I get a photo printed and hung over our bed. It may be a while, so don't hold your breath!!!
In July we purchased a new mattress. Sooo comfy! I sleep much better and no longer wake up every time I turn sides. Yeah! In August we finally bought a rug for under our bed. We meant to do it since we had moved it since the bed slides all over the wood and has unfortunately scratched our floors. : ( Love the rug! It pulled in the look of the room even more. No pic yet--maybe after I get a photo printed and hung over our bed. It may be a while, so don't hold your breath!!!
Friday, July 2, 2010
Whipping
Conor: "I'm going to whip you."
Dayna: "That sounds like fun."
Conor: "It will be."
[Conor whips Dayna]
Dayna: "That was fun, whip me again!"
This is almost what it was like - less the tattoos, mini skirts and fishnets.
Dayna: "That sounds like fun."
Conor: "It will be."
[Conor whips Dayna]
Dayna: "That was fun, whip me again!"
This is almost what it was like - less the tattoos, mini skirts and fishnets.
Sunday, May 16, 2010
Skeletons in the Closet
Back in February, while Conor was in Angola for work, I went to the hall closet to pull out the vacuum. With the small amount of daylight, I noticed something on the floor as I reached for the vacuum coaster base. As I put my hand down to pick it up, I quickly retracted and gasped. I couldn't believe my eyes! It was a lizard! Or, I should say, the skeletal remains of a lizard which were quite nicely preserved! Being the freak that I am, I found a stiff piece of paper to scoop him up and moved him to higher ground.
We had freezing temperatures this past winter in Houston. I had purchased some plants and trees last fall that were all outside. Some were houseplants I meant to move indoors, but didn't have the pots ready to transplant just yet. When it started to freeze, we moved the plants indoors to their new home. Along with them came some lizard friends. I had found several of them, one-by-one in the bromeliad, near the front door. They are chameleons and change color, so some days they were brownish, like the wood flooring, and other days they were green, like the plant leaves, and sometimes a mix of both. I had to keep my eyes peeled so as not to step on them when going to and from the office. I am NOT a pet person and wished them to go back where they belong, outside, but will admit I found them rather cute! I would look for them during the day and seldom would they come out. Conor successfully moved one lizard outside, after it scared me on my office desk. Apparently, this one wasn't quite so lucky. . . What do YOU have hiding in your closets?!
P.S. I love white elephant parties and think this little guy, lacquered up on a piece of driftwood, would be fabulous!!! : )
P.P.S. My family all thought I was a freak when we showed our lizard friend to them over the webcam on Easter. They couldn't believe I kept him. He's quite cute--what can I say? I put my pinky finger next to him in a pic so you can see the size. Shane and Mindy were quite surprised how small he really is when they came to visit. lol
Monday, April 19, 2010
Hummus + Baba Ganoush
Well, I got on this weird kick where I love Mediterranean food. Inspired mainly by this sweet restaurant. So...I said to myself, I can make this yummy nectar of life known as hummus and baba ganoush.
So...I embarked on an afternoon of cooking and baking (I decided to make the bread as well). The hummus turned out pretty well IMHO. The bread was...edible. But, we are able to share with our friends at the wonderful silent movie at Discovery Green. It seemed like it went over pretty well. I'm posting the recipe here (sans the pita bread)...
Tahini - 1 cup sesame seeds, a little EVOO. Roast seeds @ 340 in oven, do not brown. Put in food processor. Add oil as needed to make a paste. I should also add that if you plan on venturing into the world of falafel, you might want to consider an oil that is more stable at high heat than olive oil (aka veg oil).
Hummus - 16 oz chick peas, strained. 1/4 cup chick pea water. 2-3 cloves of garlic. 1.5 tsp tahini. Olive Oil. Fresh lemon juice. Salt. Put in food processor and hit go. Blend until it looks like hummus. Tweak ingredients to suit your taste. For spicy variation, I added cayenne pepper and a couple of thai chilies.
Baba Ganoush - Roast eggplant @ 400 degrees for 30-40 mins (make sure to poke holes with a fork). After roasting, place eggplant in cold water. Skin and put in food processor. With eggplant, add 1/4 cup tahini (I had less than that), lemon juice, a couple of cloves of garlic, olive oil, pepper and salt. Hit go on the food processor.
The great thing about all these recipes are you can just chop, taste and refine. Really easy. Also, you can get as creative as you want with other things to add to your hummus (we're open to suggestions, we have a lot of chick peas left over). And Anne's idea about using it as a spread on sandwiches, excellent.
I estimate a 2 cup batch of hummus cost just over $1. We bought the huge can of chick peas, so we saved a lot of money there. Just a note for the cost conscience.
Me and the tahini
Baba Ganoush prior to processing!
Rolling out the pita bread dough
Hummus in finished state
Dough after rising
Me and spicy hummus
Done pitas (I have a few ideas to improve)
Wednesday, April 14, 2010
Houston Burger
We have been in Houston for over a year now. OK, just at a year for Dayna. We have found all these awesome restaurants, but one thing has been missing from our list of regulars. A burger.
It's been so bad that when I craved a burger last time, I thought about going to BK. There is the greasy burger stand in The Heights, which is so impressive I can't recall its name. It's on the corner of 11th and Studewood. But, I was almost reduced to going chez MacDo, as the French would say, over that lousy Heights Hamburger Place.
But, it's amazing how smart this guy is. He led us straight to the promised land of hamburgers. And after we crossed the sea, there stood Christian's. Check out Texas Burger Guy's review of the place.
Well, we can put the Conor & Dayna stamp of approval on Christian's. It's nice to have a place near home where we can go pick up a good burger. This place is starting to feel more like home everyday.
Next up...Smashburger!
It's been so bad that when I craved a burger last time, I thought about going to BK. There is the greasy burger stand in The Heights, which is so impressive I can't recall its name. It's on the corner of 11th and Studewood. But, I was almost reduced to going chez MacDo, as the French would say, over that lousy Heights Hamburger Place.
But, it's amazing how smart this guy is. He led us straight to the promised land of hamburgers. And after we crossed the sea, there stood Christian's. Check out Texas Burger Guy's review of the place.
Well, we can put the Conor & Dayna stamp of approval on Christian's. It's nice to have a place near home where we can go pick up a good burger. This place is starting to feel more like home everyday.
Next up...Smashburger!
Saturday, April 3, 2010
Bring on the BEEF!!!
Digging in the archives now, trying to catch up with life. I'll go back to where I left off last fall. Yes, I am fully aware it is April . . . . just be grateful Conor posted the video while on our Utah trip in December! ; )
So, many of you may find this amusing. I am 31 years old and had never cooked a "real" roast. Only thing I had ever done was venison roasts, from deer and elk--which were small cuts. The only way I had ever prepared them in the past was using the pressure cooker. They were alright, but probably stored in the freezer way too long before I got to that point. (Having an upright freezer that was larger than my fridge just perpetuated the awful cycle!) Growing up we ate red meat and potatoes all the time--to the point I grew sick of it. Most of my adult life I haven't eaten or cooked them much. Chicken has become my protein of choice! : )
Last fall Conor wanted to know if we could have roast, potatoes, etc. and have the traditional Sunday meal after church. I laughed and then realized I haven't done that in years, let alone since we've been married. That next week I found a roast at the store that looked interesting and decided to try my hand at a real beef roast! I don't even recall what it was now--crown rib roast? I browned it with seasonings and cut slits for garlic and rosemary--then added all the other goodies. Baked it in the oven until medium rare and it was good. I personally think it looked better than it tasted. lol The following weeks I tried a slow cooked roast in the crock pot, with meat only and fixings baked on low in the oven. Loved that!!! Then I tried one with it all together in the crock pot--meat was amazingly tender and fell apart, once again, but I like the flavor of my potatoes, carrots, onion, etc. by itself. Always have.
Here's to my attempts to reawaken my homemaking self and preparing better, home-cooked meals!
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