Copper

Last week Ben and I celebrated our 8th anniversary! How time flies, goodness! One of my traditions is to get him a present that corresponds with either the traditional or modern gift for the year we are celebrating. This has proved to be require some creativity on my part. My self-inflicted rules are that it has to be for him, not us or the house, and is reasonably priced.

This year (according to some lists) the gift is copper. Hmmm. Copper. What would Ben like out of copper? A penny? :) It took some thinking and some surfing before I found what I wanted to get him - a copper piece of art. I found a guy on eBay that takes a sheet of copper and treats it with different chemicals to get different reactions on the metal. I thought it was pretty cool, so I bought one.

As for me, there isn't as much of a pattern for gifts from Ben. Sometimes he adds a piece of jewelry to my sapphire collection (sapphire is September's stone). Other times I get showered with roses. This year it was roses. He bought me 40 long-stem roses of nearly every color out there. They are so pretty! I took some pictures, so I'll try to post so you can see them.

We celebrated by going to Bacio's. It was very tasty.

Being Productive

This weekend Ben has been at a conference by the MOA. Every day starts early and ends late so I have pretty much been on my own. Yesterday after our run, Zoey and I cleaned our bedroom and bathroom from top to bottom. It had gotten way out of control. I feel so good about the room now. Almost all the clothes are put away (the ones that aren't are from today's washing) and everything is put in order. I do have a pile of things that need to find new homes. Unfortunately, that new home is probably my office/craft room downstairs. That room has seen some progress, but not there yet. Maybe I'll hide the box of stuff until that room is under control too.

Anyway, today I did some grocery shopping. Went to the dog park (as it turns out, 80 and sunny makes for a hot day for a black dog). And did some cooking for the week. I bought a full chicken and roasted it. Once it cooled down I shredded some and left the rest in pieces. That will be lunch and dinner tomorrow. (Dinner will transform it into a chicken pot pie type dish). Kitchen is all cleaned up.

Sometimes I am so productive I scare myself.

The Fox and the Hound

Last night Zoey and I were home alone. I had fallen asleep downstairs watching TV (a favorite pastime when Ben is away - no joke, I just can't explain it). All of a sudden I was jerked from my sleep by Zoey barking. She was upstairs and she came running downstairs and kept barking while looking through the sliding door. I got up to investigate. Apparently Zoey does not appreciate it when there is a fox in our yard. I could see the silhouette of it on the hill by the pond. Then I watched it cross the street. Zoey would not settle down right away.

Today I was going to go for a run. Zoey watched while I was putting on my shoes and was getting so excited, that I brought her with. How could I say no to that excited little girl? So, instead of 4 miles we went 3 (her limit). Probably a good idea - didn't realize how humid it is out there. Yuck! Zoey was a very good dog. She didn't bark or pull when we passed people on the trail. Maybe she's finally figured out her manners.

Oh, and last week was Zoey's 6th birthday. I meant to go to McDonald's and get a cheeseburger for her, but I forgot to. So instead she got a rawhide.

We Are Like Grasshoppers Compared to Them

Saturday was a beautiful day. I went for a run (only 35 miles left to go). It was a lot of fun. There were grasshoppers all over the trail and as I ran they would hop or fly out of my way. A very nice distraction from my run.

After that we had a few friends over. Some friends that moved out of state were in town, so we got together to catch up. It was a lot of fun to see them again and hear how life is for them. They are doing great.

Last week I made halibut kabobs with lemon tarragon butter. They were pretty good, but it turns out that I don't like tarragon very much (slight licorice taste). Then I made some peach jalapeno jam. It turned out a little thick, but it will probably still be pretty tasty on top of some cream cheese. Tonight I made risotto Florentine. It was pretty good too.

In other news, the good news is that my friend, Levrette, from India will be coming for a visit in September for a month or so. The bad news is that he is coming to learn another of my friend's jobs because the job was off-shored. It was expected, so at least it didn't come as a complete surprise. But it sucks. It was really hard for me because I knew about it a week or so before the team here did. It was hard keeping it a secret. Then when everyone found out the news, it was hard to defend why I kept it a secret. But I am relieved that it is out. And I am excited that Levrette will be here! I started to make a list of things to do. One thing on the list is to have Root Beer Floats. If anyone wants to join us for floats, let me know!

Peach Time

It's that wonderful time of year - I have a whole crate of delicious Colorado peaches. Yum! The other night I made a salad recipe from Every Day with Rachael Ray that had grilled peaches and grilled ham. The ham and peaches were great! The salad was... a little over the top. There were too many flavors. Ben requested that we not have the leftovers for the next night's dinner.

That same night I made Peach Cobbler from BH&G cookbook. I used more peaches than it called for, but I think that only helped the recipe. So yummy served warm with ice cream.

I have about 1/3 of the crate left, so I'm sure I will be posting with some more new recipes.

Record Breaking Month

I forgot to mention that this month I am on fire for new recipes! I made homemade pecan coconut frosting the other week for Ben's German chocolate cake. Friday I made Moroccan Chicken (anyone know how to smooth out spices? The dish seemed grainy to me). Today Ben wanted teriyaki shrimp but we didn't have teriyaki sauce, so I made some. And there's still more to come! Tuesday and Wednesday I have new recipes planned too. Whew!

Oh, deer! Oh, fawn!

Yesterday we finally kicked ourselves in the butt and went to our old place to evaluate what needs to be done in order to get it rent-able. We were both pleasantly surprised at what we found - everything is still in working order, no vandalism, no animals, and not a whole lot to do. Our plan is to take part of each weekend for the next month to work on stuff. We will be doing a lot ourselves, but we hope to get someone to help with some of the projects that are time consuming. Our goal is to have it ready to go by the end of September.

After working on that, I kicked Ben's butt and convinced him to go on a bike ride with me. We took one of the Regional Trail loops for the most part. It was so pretty! The trail goes through some awesome nature areas. The trail also has a nice mix for up and down hills. It was very fun. As we passed through one area we saw a doe and her fawn. They were so close to use. It was so cool.

Then Ben fixed our garage door. In the morning, I tried to leave to go let out Andrea's dog (she was running in the Ragnar Relay) and the door would only open about 1/3 of the way. So, I used Ben's car (parked in the third stall and a different door). We looked at the door a few times and couldn't figure out what was wrong. After the bike ride, we really wanted to grill and in order to do that we needed the garage door open. So, Ben took another look. Turns out one of the pieces to allow you to lock the door was installed wrong. The bolts had worked themselves loose and the piece had turned to block the last wheel from going up. Ben removed the piece and it works again!

We finished up the day with root beer floats with my parents. Today will be doing new house stuff... mainly laundry. I'm hoping to get a run in too. We'll see.