decorating - here we go again!

I came home to the nicest surprise.....randy decorated our front bay window! Everything else is still still sitting on my living room floor, but he found just the right items / lights to WOW me as i pulled into the driveway

and this is what greeted me when I walked in my front door!

what ever happened to ant hills?

so when amie says she's going on a hike, where does she REALLY go? How about climbing Mt Kilimanjaro!

at a little pit stop at the crater's rim, also known at Gillman's Point (mighty impressive)
basically at the top of Africa....nice going AMES!

PS: these pics are from Summer 2007...can't you tell by the ice shelf?

crab rangoon update

ok, so thanksgiving dinner tonight was a lot of fun (everyone left about an hour ago & the pics are to be uploaded later on)....but for all those who couldn't sleep on my indecision on frying or baking.......I decided to go the FRY method. I did find out since this was my first attempt to fry anything, that you have to clean out your oil btwn each batch (so batch 2 came out a bit icky...good thing fern & I made like 5-6 batches). I served them with a sweet & sour dipping sauce, and not one was left over - YUUUUUUUUUMMY!

Starbucks Dilemma

so, do i buy the christmas blend for my non-jewish friends & the holiday blend for my jewish friends? I realize the pic is a bit blurry (hey, it was too early in the morning to have a steady hand - i hadn't had my grande skim sugar free vanilla extra foamy caramel machichatto yet, yanno?)....but now back to the issue - should I give the holiday blend to my Muslim friends or hold out & hope that they come out with another version in oranges for Diwali?

now here is another issue - who is having more fun on the packages??? If you are into singing, ok then maybe I'd say the Christmas Blend, but if you are into Ice Skating, then the Holiday Blend, right?

So what if you are a ice skating opera singer?

Oiy Vey!

crab rangoon

decisions /decisions - should I bake or fry?
I want to serve them as an appy on Thanksgiving.
Every recipe says to fry....but I'm not that good at frying - guess I'll have to have a trial run w/Sherri on wednesday.

rockin in da 'boken

last night I was at a DMB concert at the IZOD center (my last for 2007, bummer!)....if I knew my nephew was such a rock & roller, I would have taken the little dude with me!!!

~~ Todd rocks out in Metallakid ~~

Post Anniversary Dinner

Strange Night.

Randy orig made dinner reservations at The Bacchus Steakhouse http://www.thebacchuschophouse.com/ for this past Wed, but I told him to postone it to Saturday JIC i couldn't get out work on time. The place has awesome reviews, and i've been dying to go there - but now that I've been there, idunno if i'd come back

1) we arrived on time for our 7:30pm reservations. The hostess asks us if we want to get a drink at the bar first (?????) Why would i want to stand around drinking at a bar, when I could drink at a table w/o the crowd. If the table wasn't ready, that is one thing - but it was still early, so there were plenty of tables still open.

2) luckily when asked if we wanted to be seated in the first room "with the entertainment" or in the back room, we selected back room (VERY GOOD CHOICE - SEE BELOW)

3) the timing for our first round of drinks & appetizers were fine (except randy's appy, which was Gnocchi w/ Truffles & Mushrooms was AMAZING and mine, which was the special - Sauteed Shrimp Risotto, was EHHHHHH)

Things went kinda downhill from here...basically, we were forgotten.

4) took over 45 min from removing our appy plates to bringing our steaks and asking us if we wanted wine with our dinner. Randy ordered this humungo Porterhouse steak (rare), and i ordered the Filet Mignon (medium). Mine came out Well Done - blech, so I wound up eating some of randy's (which was too rare for me, so I wound up dunking it in ketchup).

5) after dinner we were given dessert menus. It took another 30 minutes to take our order - the pumpkin cheesecake - and then another 40 minutes to bring it with the cordials. The dessert was really yummy, but by that time i was getting bored with the place.

Oh, forgot to mention that during #4, the live entertainment began. I thought it might be a Harry Connick jr type piano player....OH NO...it was a James Brown impersonator (and i mean a damn good one) singing friggen loud. If i was in that first room - I would have picked myself up & left before dinner. All I could think of was The Bistro, circa 1989!!!!

It wasn't a BAD meal, but after reading reviews & viewing their website, I did build it up in my head....and I was a bit disappointed.

halloween "cuz" style

this is a bit freaky...."scary movie" is actually the cutest 9 y/o girl w/long blond hair, and it's pretty obvious that little "tigger" is not one bit afraid!!!!!!

Sarah & Landon

happy anniversary to ME

happy anniversary to me,

happy anniversary to me,

happy anniversary to meeeeeeeee,

happy anniversary to me!

xoxoxo

cuteness goes trick -or- treating

so my little "SUPER" nephew gets ready to change into his halloween costume

VOILA! Now he's "MONKEY BOY" ....and if he just knew how to peal a banana at 10 mths, he'd really be "SUPER-BABY" !