Saturday, May 31, 2008

Partay!



Friends



The old team together again (Jenny was late - otherwise she would have been in the photo too).


Omid going to grill more meat.





Jan & Doug (toast time)






Omid enjoying the yacht.






Tonight, Omid & I attended my former boss, Jan C.'s retirement/wedding reception/birthday party at the Portland Yacht Club. We had a great time! Omid enjoyed looking around Jan & Doug's yacht. It was beautiful (all 42' of it)! The difference between a boat and a yacht is: a boat is 10ft to 34ft in length and a yacht is 34ft to 65ft.

Photo of Jan's Yacht (from her blog)

Dinner was delicious. It was a 'grill your own meat' party. Omid was so impressed with the grill. It was huge (maybe 10' x 5'). Omid enjoyed grilling the meat for our entire table. He also met a lot of people who admired his WSU shirt. It was definitely a good wardrobe choice on his part.

We had a great time catching up with old friends. The night ended way too soon (as it always seems to when we're having fun).

Talking Dogs & Tri-Tip

When Remy first came into our family a few years ago, Naseem found this book at the library. It's really cute & has little tips (& adorable pictures) for talking to your dog. One of the tips is to kiss the back of your hand rather loudly, again & again. This tip has worked everytime we've tried it. We get a response from Remy no matter what. Last night was no different. Naseem was talking to Remy and then kissed the back of her hand. He immediately starting talking.
Cute book.

The Talker.
Naseem talked with Remy while Omid made dinner. He & Matty (& some friends) returned from fishing around 9:00 p.m., so we ate a little late. We had the best tri-tip. It's the Morton's Steakhouse tri tip from Costco. Simply delicious!

Morton's tri-tip.


Yes, the clock is correct. It was 10:53 p.m. by the time we finished eating dinner & the dishes had been done. This is almost 2 hours past my bedtime. I went to bed right after this photo.

Friday, May 30, 2008

Cream Cheese Pastries




Omid asked me the other day, "why don't you ever make those cream cheese pastries anymore? I had to think about why I haven't make them in quite some time and I couldn't come up with a good reason. I guess I just forgot about them.


So...while he & Matty were off fishing, I ran to the store and bought some puff pastry & cream cheese. Normally, I would make my own puff pastry (no joke, I can bake - just not cook) but there wasn't time for it tonight. So...here is the quick version of cream cheese pastries. Go bake & enjoy!
**Laurel - make these! They are easy on the tummy & have all the calcium Lima needs for strong bones!

Cream Cheese Pastries

1 box puff pastry (thawed)
1/2 brick cream cheese (4 oz)
1/2 cup sugar
1 t vanilla

Lay out the puff pastry on your counter (with a little flour). Mix the cream cheese, sugar & vanilla. Spread on one sheet of puff pastry. Place the second sheet of Puff P. on top of the cream cheese mix. Press down and cut into 12 rectangles. Separate rectangles & seal edges together with a fork. Cut a cute design into the top with a knife. Rub a little bit of milk on top of each rectangle & sprinkle turbinado sugar on the milk. Bake in a 400* oven for 12-15 minutes or until the top is golden brown. These taste best warm. Enjoy!

Exhausted!

Remy went for a long run today with Omid. Omid rode the motorcycle & Remy chased after him around the neighborhood. He slept the afternoon away in the sunshine.

Thursday, May 29, 2008

ZZZzzzzzzzz!

About a month ago, I posted something about falling asleep at our house. One thing is for sure, if you do fall asleep at our house: I will take a photo of you (you've been warned!). So...last night, Matty fell asleep on the couch at around 8:00 p.m. He is growing and obviously needs lots of sleep. Well, not even Matty was safe from the camera. Omid was able to shoot a mini movie of the snoring babe. Remy was even in on the action. He was so curious as to what Omid was doing with the camera. It was so funny. So, click on the movie and enjoy!

**I do not know what happened during the uploading of my video. For some reason, only the left hand side of the movie is shown and half of Matty & Remy's faces are left out of the picture. It also makes it look like Omid doesn't know how to shoot video (he does - I don't).

Wednesday, May 28, 2008

Xanadu!




Can you believe Xanadu! is now a Broadway show? I won't be seeing it! I recently saw this movie after remembering how awesome the music was. The movie was AWFUL!!! And to think, I had fond memories of this movie - obviously my 6th grade taste in movies wasn't that good! I kept fast forwarding the movie to the good parts (with the music). What was Gene Kelly thinking? How could this movie boost his career?
Anyways...I remember skating on my backyard patio to the music (being blasted through the screen door). My sisters and I shared the album and we'd play our three favorite songs again and again (listen to them here on my playlist). Sigh...memories.
**One movie/broadway show you will find me at is Mama Mia! (Katie - do you remember?). How can you resist ABBA? They are my all-time favorite - the best! I am waiting for the movie this summer (anything with Meryl Streep is worth watching).

The Pledge



I got tired of waiting for my sister to post this on her blog, so I'm postin' it on mine! Humpf!
My 4 year old nephew's preschool class recited the Pledge of Allegiance on the radio station this morning. It's too cute. Have a listen if you want. Cayden is the one who sounds like Bobby Hill (they share the same haircut, too).



I fed the Venus Fly Trap yesterday. I bought several small crickets from the pet store and threw them in the 'terrarium' to fend for themselves. The crickets all headed underneath the plant and hid out there. I had to have Matty help me capture them and hand feed the plant. You can see several cricket heads sticking out after the VFT closed it's jaws on the crickets. The last time I fed the VFT (about a month ago), the crickets just barely entered the terrarium and were immediately snatched up by the VFT. This new batch of crickets were a lot smarter and knew they were meant to be dinner.

Delicious!

The homemade-not-from-a-box-pineapple-upside-down-cake was delicious! I am usually the cake mix type person, but didn't have any boxes on hand (shocking!), and found this recipe in a Better Homes & Gardens 'booklet' I received for free a few years back. I think this is the first time I have ever baked anything from the booklet. Here is the recipe:

Pineapple Upside-down Cake

2 T butter
1/3 c brown sugar
1 T water
1 8 oz can pineapple slices (drained)
4 maraschino cherries, halved
1 1/3 c flour
2/3 c sugar
2 t baking powder
2/3 c milk
1/4 c butter, softened
1 egg
1 t vanilla

Melt the 2 T butter in a 9 " round baking pan. Stir in brown sugar & water. Arrange pineapple & cherries on bottom & set aside. Cream butter & sugar. Add egg & vanilla. Add dry ingredients. Add milk. Spoon batter into prepared pan. Bake in a 350* oven for 35 minutes or until a toothpick comes out clean. Cool in pan 5 minutes & invert onto a plate.

**Note: I had a lot of fresh pineapple left over, so I doubled the recipe & baked the cake in a 9 x 13 pan. I also didn't have any cherries on hand, but the cake was still delicious without them.

Tuesday, May 27, 2008

A domestic goddess...

...I am not.
Baking ingredients & mail clutter the kitchen counter.

I count 4 sweatshirts in various places.


Sink full of dirty dishes & chicken thawing for dinner.

But...we will have a delicious chicken dinner and scrumptious pineapple upside down cake (made from scratch & using fresh, not canned pineapple) for dessert. I will start cleaning now until Omid gets home and he will never know how messy the house was - unless he reads the blog and looks at the evidence for himself.


Monday, May 26, 2008

It was such a mild night, we decided to go for a walk.

Nas - arranging her playlist for the walk.

Omid & I with our matching vests (though his vest could use an applique).

I can walk faster than you can!



Walking boys


Last one home is a rotten egg!







Catching Up with Old Friends





After a weekend of not doing much of anything(which I desperately needed!), I spent the afternoon getting up to speed on the happenings with my favorite tv family, The Sopranos. I missed the finale finale and decided to watch it this afternoon. The kids were busy with Guitar Hero and Omid was napping. Remy & I sat down to w atch the final hour of Season 6. The minute the theme song came on, Omid woke up. It was hilarious. He was 100% awake too. So funny. Well, I watched the show on the edge of my seat - it was so good. After it was over, I had to look on the web to see if I could find out any information on when a movie might be made. I am holding my breath for this one, just like I am for a 4th Jason Bourne movie.


Playlist

You have no doubt found (or heard) my playlist while reading the blog. These are some of my favorites from high school, college and now. You can click on any of the songs if you don't like what is currently playing.

**The playlist is at the very bottom of the blog if you can hear it, but can't see it.

Enjoy!

US Government blogs?

I enjoy reading The Seattle Times newspaper (online edition). It's full of interesting tidbits. I found the following information a few weeks back and was saving it to post when I had nothing else to write about.

Did you know the Federal Government has a blog? Here's the info from the ST:

"The blogosphere is full of interesting information, and you love being able to leave comments and feedback. But how can you be sure the "facts" you're getting are legitimate? Gov Gab: Your U.S. government blog (www.govgab.gov ) is the blog you can trust because it is brought to you by the Federal government . . ."

Check it out at www.govgab.gov

Sunday, May 25, 2008

Thunderstorms!

Oh my goodness, what a show we had last night. We had a thunderstorm I will not soon forget. First, we noticed around 6:45 p.m. that the sky to the east of us was an eerie purple-black and bright with sunshine. We were thinking "tornado weather" from the numerous times we had seen the movie "Twister" (that makes us experts) and from watching the news this week (Oklahoma, Kansas, Colorado). The next thing we knew there was forked lightning coming out of the sky. It was beautiful, but kind of scary too. The sky kept changing color. It changed from a blue sky in the west to: a sepia tone, to orange, to rose, to purple to blue and then black. No kidding! This happened in about 10 minutes. Lastly, there was a clap of thunder so loud it scared me. It sounded like it was right outside our front door. Not only did it scare me, it scared Remy. He freaked out. He immediately left the room and hid upstairs. I went with him to try and distract him, but he didn't want consoling. Remy would shake everytime he saw the flash of lightning and brace himself for the thunder that followed. He was shaking so bad - it was terrible to watch. I had Nas bring up the Rescue Remedy for Remy. He took some and then immediately started panting. He ran downstairs and hid in the broom closet. Nas & I hung out with him in there for a while. Then, he ran upstairs and hid in bed with Omid. I checked on Remy about 30 minutes later and he was sound asleep. Poor Baby! From start to finish, the storm lasted about an hour and a half. Too long for Remy to handle.

*Check out Bach's Rescue Remedy. It's not only good for pets but for humans too. http://www.bachflower.com/Rescue_Remedy.htm

**Netflix this movie: The Savages. I love Philip Seymour Hoffman and he doesn't disappoint in this movie. Laura Linney is pretty fantastic too.

Saturday, May 24, 2008

Sun Dog

There is only one person in our family who loves the sun more than I do and that is Remy. Yay for sun!

Friday, May 23, 2008

Football & Friends








This is Romeen Abdolmohammadi (try saying that 3 times fast). He is the son of a Omid's friend, Mostafa. Romeen played football (#19) for WSU & was their star kicker this year. Anyhoo, Romeen recently graduated from WSU and was in town visiting. He & Omid spent the day fishing.


Romeen brought this box with him from The Bookie (store at WSU).




Inside the box were wonderful goodies from Pullman.

Omid & Romeen home from fishing.



Matty & Romeen.

School Pride

WSU is the best college in the USA. It's where I met some my husband and good friends; and learned to dislike the Huskies a lot! There is one thing Coug alumni have and that is school pride. I got into an argument two weeks ago at my nephew's bday party with a Eastern Eagle alum who is a passionate Husky fan. He went to school on the eastern side of the state - but is still a Husky fan? I don't get that - but then, he is an odd fellow (right B?). Right!

This the band, Vertigo Bliss (made up of WSU students). I recently heard they have a new take on the WSU fight song. The other song, incoming Freshman learn at orientation (Fight, fight, fight for Washington State! Win the victory! Win the day for Crimson & Gray!) etc. Vertigo Bliss' take is sung to the Beach Boys' tune Be True to Your School. Here are Vertigo Bliss' lyrics:

When some loud braggart tries to put me down And says his school is great I tell him right away Now what’s the matter buddy Ain’t you heard of Wazzu We're going straight to the top So be true to wazzu now Just like you would to your girl or guy Be true to your wazzu And let the crimson fly Be true to Wazzu

I got a letterman’s sweaterWith a cougar on front I got for football and track I’m proud to where it now When I cruise around The other parts of the town All the huskies bow down. So be true to wazzu now Just like you would to your girl or guy Be true to your Wazzu now And let the crimson fly Be true to Wazzu


On Friday we’ll be jacked up on the football game And I’ll be ready to fight We’re gonna smash ’em now My girl will be working on her pom-poms now And she’ll be yelling tonight (Go cougs!)So be true to Wazzu now Just like you would to your girl or guy Be true to Wazzu now And let the crimson fly Be true to Wazzu

Rah rah rah be true to Wazzu Rah rah rah be true to Wazzu
Rah rah rah be true to Wazzu Rah rah rah be true to Wazzu