Benefits of Living in WA State

I am just a little teeny tiny bit jealous.

A little bit.

My sister and parents went up to Vancouver on Sunday to check out the Olympics.

How cool is that?

Games and Cuban Food

The next day of that weekend (we had a busy weekend with Super Bowl on Sunday too), Saturday night, we were invited to Frank and Mercedes' place for dinner with some friends.

Frank and Mercy were recently married (hurray) and it was fun to celebrate with them again and eat fantastic food.

(I don't know why I didn't get a picture of the food, but it was very good. Mercy is Cuban and made this wonderful traditional meal!)

Darin loved his food and Frank.

Mercy and Frank have all of these shakers/drum things around their apartment.

People kind of went crazy:

Nazelle, Raji, and Darin

Me.

And then we started playing games. Started off with a game we got for Christmas from my SIL/BIL - called Smart Ass Trivia Game. It was pretty awesome. For some reason we all got very excited when a blue card was read. Don't really know why.

And I won. *yep*

Then we played Quelf.

The board. I was the purple bat thing.
Darin was the tall skinny guy.
Not really.

And you could tell, we enjoyed this one too:

N.

Frank and Mercy.

Bonnie and Sergio.
(Only pic I took of them - other than dinner ones!)

And that's that. Ha.

Try the games, they were very fun! Thanks so much to Frank and Mercedes for hosting us and giving us fantastic food!

What I hold in my Heart

In church today, the childrens' sermon was about what you hold in your heart.

It made me think of all of the wonderful people who bless my life, Darin's life, and our families lives.

And it made me realize how truly blessed we all are.

Here is what I hold in my heart:

We love our families, friends, and puppies very much.

Happy V Day.

P.S. Sorry if you aren't in the picture, it doesn't mean we don't love you. It means I got lazy about 20 minutes in creating the picture and couldn't do it any more and gave up...

Birthday and Kabobs

This past Friday night, we celebrated our great friend Cathy's birthday. Now I don't know how *much* older she was (other than the obvious year), but we were excited to be able to celebrate with her.

Cathy was diagnosed as having a gluten-free while ago, so it was a challenge to find something to eat.

And then I realized that corn and rice don't include gluten, and it wasn't that hard.

We had a bunch of people over for kabobs on the grill (one of our staples), rice, and some appetizers - including brie which was a super big hit. Note to self, make baked brie for all parties.

Jake helped with cleanup.

Cathy ended up making her own cake. What can I say, she's like that. Plus, I would have had to make macaroons or something like that.

Cathy with her cake and little helper.

Cutting the cake - it was dense. And great!

Singing Happy Birthday. Or howling.

The Group:
Mercy, Nadine, Vicky, Raji, Debbie, Cathy, Del, and Michele

Vicky, Debbie, and Raji.

Frank, Mercy, and Nadine (Frank's sister!)

Del, Cathy, Michele, and Darin

And that's that. I tend to end using those words...

Good food, great cake, fantastic friends. And one spoiled happy dog.

Books I Read

I've decided to try to put some type of mark next to the books I have read or listened to telling whether I enjoyed the book, hated it (doesn't happen to me really), or LOVED the book.

I am the type of person who really likes most books. I don't know many books that I haven't finished... I guess I give things a try (and for the most part it doesn't take me too long to read, so what's a couple more days).

Also wanted to mention I read a lot of books by the same author. I'm like that. I have my favorites just like everyone else (plus though are the books most often at the library, as I don't buy books) - but every now and then I'll try something new.

So I hope this helps if you're looking for a great/good/okay/fabulous book to read!

Key:

*** Fantastic
** Very very good
* Good
+ Loved it because it's one of my favorite authors. I'm biased.
- Yak

And that's that.

A Milestone Day: 70!

My FIL turned seventy this past month - January 26th.

There were some 'small' parties for him - a simple family get-together at Smokey Bones.

And then there was the surprise party for him two Saturday's ago (same day as the Chili Fest)!

Kevin and DJ, and their kids came in unexpectedly to surprise Keay with a special family dinner and sugar free cake.

What a great day!

(And he was surprised - we missed it though. I guess he was like, why would they (K, DJ, and kids) be here today?)

C. playing the organ.
Reminds me of a bad inappropriate joke. Sigh.

S. hiding/running away from me.
He's at that stage. Or at least we hope...
:)

Waiting for c.a.k.e.
Kevin, DJ, Goestov, and Diana

Hurray! Isn't sugar-free a miracle!?

I love to celebrate birthdays - especially such a great one such as 70! Can't wait for 80 to come to us all!

A Fun Furry Friend

This is Sydney.

She's a Shiba Inu.

We wanted to steal her from Seattle.

She is my parent's across-the-street neighbor's dog.

And we love her.

As you can tell.

(But we still love our Cricky more. Just a smidgen.)

If we get another dog, I'd like to adopt a Sheba. There is one problem though, I can't seem to find any around here to adopt.

Is this because they're very popular?

Or because Florida is in the Tropics and furry dogs don't like/shouldn't live there?

The question remains and will one day be answered.

But next time we visit my parents, her parents should be warned. We want to steal her and bring her home in our suitcase.

A Chili Day to Remember

On January 30th the First Annual Orlando Chili Cook-off took place.

And we were there.

Our friends, Bob and Julie, had gotten together with some of their friends and actually participated in the chili cook-off. Like, they actually made chili.

Their setup: Named after Bob/Julie's dog Foster.

We just wanted to eat chili.

With cracker and beer!

Ended up deciding to get there a little early to see if Bob and Julie needed any help. So glad we did because we ended up getting hungry and trying a lot of the different types of chili right when things started at noon.

Because at like 1:30 pm, it was packed. And then people started running out of chili (they had to make at least 3 gallons of the stuff). We had tried about 80% of them by then. Phew. And the line to get it was long.

But it was good. And we ate a lot of chili. Bob and Julie's was tasty - very spicy. I also tried three with buffalo meat and two with venison. My favorite was one that added salsa to the chili. Kind of tasted like Sloppy Joes.

(Man, now I want a sloppy joe).

Our buddy Al came by in time to try maybe eight or so of the different chili concoctions (we tried about30-35). Diana and Goestov came a bit later than he and tried maybe 5 or so.

And then it started raining and we left.

Full to the brink of chili (and beer/wine).

East vs. West

The next weekend, we got tickets to the East West College Football game. I don't know exactly how this happened, but I was sneaky and got some tickets. (Actually nobody grabbed them at the RMH, so I thought it'd be fun to go since Janice and Josh were already going - and Suzanne came too!

We 'tailgated' for a bit before the game. This insisted of Suz, Janice, and I drinking (whichever beverage of preference) and the boys, Darin, Josh, and S. throwing the football around the parking area.

Lush!

Suz and Janice drinkin' it up.

We then walked to the stadium and found this guy:

He's the Shriner's hat.

We found our upper deck (but not super high upper deck) seats, got some funnel cake, and popcorn, and watched the game.

Josh and S. It was hot, thus Josh's crazy hat.

Go East!

We actually watched the football game. Amazing!

The group. In the hot sun.

Pimpin' Josh. With a pink hat and purple sunglasses.

And then the best part of the whole afternoon presented itself to us.

Kenny G. was the half-time preformer.

Oh. Dear.

We ended up having to leave early because we had a fun wine tasting to go to with Tony and the other Janice. Met up with them and ate some snazzy food and drank some pretty terrific wine from Napa Valley - the Terraces. Ate some actual dinner type food later on, and then went back to drink more wine.

Football + wine = Good way to spend the day

The Traditional Circus

We got a email from our friend Russell (one of my coworkers) about cheap tickets to the circus. And not just any circus, but THE circus.

We invited our friends that we saw the night before. Twice in one weekend, amazing!

Angela, Dan, H., and C. decided to join us for an exciting day!

The promenade. Fantastic!

The Mad Hatter.

The show was incredible. We couldn't believe all of the different types of shows that were going on. It was crazy!

He's balancing on the other guys' head.

Tigers!

At intermission, we hung out and ate some cotton candy and shaved ice. Or at least the girls did...

H. concentrating.

The H. Family!

We stole the kids - but for just a minute...

We highly recommend this show. It was very spectacular. They had everything imaginable. Our favorites were the seven (7) motorcycles spinning inside of a metal ball. And the three women who somehow (very carefully) fit inside a box. Yikes.

Go. See. It.

A Great Italian Birthday

We've had a crazy January - started off a little on the low side with the death of a very dear friend of ours. But realizing that we need to celebrate and experience our lives, we've tried to keep busy enjoying our friends and the wonderful opportunities that were presented to us.

And we've been busy. A birthday to start the month, a circus, a wine fest, a chili fest, a football game, Phantom of the Opera, and finally another very special birthday. And it's been a month to remember and celebrate. And now it's February!

Our very great friend Angela celebrated her birthday this year with her incredible family and gracefully included us. We love to be with her family - they were so wonderful to talk to, share a beer with, and eat with! Woo hoo!

The Crowd. Too many to name.

Cake. So good.

H. digging in on the ice cream.

We had a great time - there was freshly made Italian food that was delicious. Best part of the night was when Angela was opening presents. Her husband, Dan, got her the exactly same outfit she was wearing (except in different colors). How funny?! I guess she liked it, right. It was really very cool.

Happy Birthday Angela!