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A Bit 'O Shelving


This weekend with a modicum of blood, sweat, tears and creativity, we finished the decorative shelf for little one's room. The thing is 12' long, so we had to construct it in the basement and then take it out a window into the front yard and up the balcony that goes into her room. After some hijinks with installation, it's up and I'm very pleased with the result. True to his nature, Matt now knows 15 things he could have done better/differently and is overly critical of his work.

It's not really for storage. It's only purpose is to hold some decorative items for her room. There's not much up there right now, but you get the jist. The photos really don't do it justice. I think my height and the room's size have something to do with the quality of the photos, so sorry for those, but hopefully you can use your imagination.

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Holy Exploding DVDs Batman!

So I received a DVD ROM in the mail on Friday. A new expansion pack for one of my fave games. With Matt occupied in his shop, after dinner I retired to my office to test it out. I put the disc in the drive and busied myself with other things (checking email or something). A minute or so later, I sort of realized that the DVD-ROM drive was making a really loud whirring noise. I was about to open the drive when I heard a very loud POP! and saw a bit of smoke escape from the drive.

I escaped to the security of the stair landing and called for backup. Matt arrived on the scene moments later and we examined the scene of the incident. The DVD had exploded inside the drive!! In loads and loads of little pieces. The drive still appeared to have some function (opening and closing itself) but we decided it was probably a lost cause as far as reading and writing and removed it from the computer. I'll purchase a new one on New Egg sometime soon. Weird, eh?

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More Oreoish than Oreos

We stopped by Whole Foods last night to pick up some meat for dinner (that we were destined not to cook, thanks to the whole disposal thing :P) and I wanted a snack. So instead of the 100s of lovely healthy things I could have gotten, I picked up a box of these and some milk and we had a few on the way home.

I'm darn glad I did. They are excellent!! They are “all natural” Oreo style cookies made by Back to Nature and they are very tasty!! Somehow more like an Oreo than an Oreo itself if you see what I mean. I'll bet you can get them at any natural food store and Amazon sells a big bag of them for like $27 (!?!). Yum.

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Grumpy, Sleepy and Other Dwarfs

I know this blog has become all baby all the time and I'm sorry about that, but not much.

I didn't get around to blogging earlier today… mostly because I was grumpy. The morning started out foggy and I had not gotten a good night's sleep and I overslept and missed about 15 minutes of a meeting. The house was messy cuz a) we've got a ton of stuff going on and b) our garbage disposal is broken, making the doing of dishes very difficult. I refused to cook tonight because I didn't want to have the bother of cleaning up.

I am also still missing my personal hard drive that I use to keep the files that I want to access at work and at home. And while there's nothing of real value on there, the hard drive would be hard to replace and the data would be annoying to replace. I'm pretty certain it's still around and not truly lost to the abyss, but I just can't put my hands on it.

Luckily the fog burned off (it was making other people grump too, I swear) and the sun came out. I had a nice nap and got to watch The Office (truly cringe-worth tonight, no?). I think it's almost bedtime….

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36 Weeks (and a bit)

Alright kids, here it is in all its glory, the belly. Contained inside is one wiggly little girl. We hit 36 weeks last Friday and celebrated with a trip to the doctor's office. She's head down and there is no progress on the cervix front (which I'm sure you were *dying* to know). Her movements had changed somewhat (which they DRILL into your head to tell them about) so I mentioned this and we got to extend the visit by an hour plus while they did a non-stress test. They said everything looks great.

Anyhoooo … we had our last childbirth class last night. Afterwards, I chatted with little one and let her know that she was cleared for landing. She's full-term on Friday. I feel fairly certain, however, that she won't be showing up until closer to her due date. Luckily, I'm still not feeling tooooo uncomfy most of the time. I've had a couple hour-long bouts of irregular don't bother calling the doctor contractions and the heart burn has been a bit err.. well firey … but most of my nights are still pretty sleep filled and as long as I don't have to stand up for too long, I feel pretty good.

As for the rest of it, I guess we're prepared. We've got a carseat and Matt has been tasked with taking it to the firestation to get it installed properly. Our bags are not packed, but I've got a list. We've got pretty much all of the material goods she'll need, though I haven't washed anything yet. Shelves are the buzzword for this evening … Matt's building and hopefully installing one this evening (it's just a couple of boards jointed together laid on top of brackets, so theoretically easy) and I'm painting another set of shelves for the closet. Then we'll have some more places to put all her stuff which will be great cuz we're sorta out of room right now…

So I guess that's it for now.

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Labor of Love


I'm pleased to present to you Matt's first finished product for little one's room … one end table. This beauty is constructed of beech and has no hardware visible from the outside (really the number of screws in it, period, are less than two-handfuls). Hours and hours of work are represented in this piece and it was truly a labor of love from daddy to daughter.

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Shepherd’s Pie

from: Rachael Ray

Ingredients
2 pounds potatoes, such as russet, peeled and cubed
Salt and freshly ground black pepper
2 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil (EVOO)
1 3/4 pounds ground lamb
Pinch of allspice
1 medium carrot, peeled and chopped
1 medium parsnip, peeled and chopped
1 medium onion, chopped
2 tablespoons all-purpose flour
1/2 cup beef stock or broth
1/2 cup dark beer
1 tablespoon Worcestershire sauce (eyeball it)
2 tablespoons sour cream or softened cream cheese
1 large egg yolk
1/2 cup cream
1 teaspoon sweet paprika
2 tablespoons flat-leaf parsley (a handful), chopped

Directions
Fill a large pot with water, add the potatoes, place over high heat and bring to a boil. Add some salt and cook until tender, about 12 minutes.

While potatoes are cooking, heat a large skillet over medium-high heat with 2 turns of the pan of EVOO, about 2 tablespoons. Once hot, add the lamb and, using the back of a wooden spoon, break it up as it browns, about 5-6 minutes. Season with salt, pepper and allspice. Add carrot, parsnip and onion, and cook 5 minutes, stirring frequently.

Dust with flour, cook 1 minute, then add stock, beer and Worcestershire. Cook until thickened, then transfer to oven-safe pan.

Drain potatoes and return to the pot. Let sit a few minutes to cool slightly. Add sour cream or cream cheese, egg yolk and cream. Smash until smooth.

Preheat broiler to high. Spoon potato mixture evenly over the meat mixture.

Top potatoes with paprika and broil 6-8 inches from the heat until evenly browned, about 2-3 minutes. Sprinkle with chopped parsley and serve.

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Groundhog Day

First news of Harry Potter 7 and now an early spring! I could kiss that little rodent!! Spring cannot get here soon enough in my book. We've just had our 7th week of straight snow and everyone is a bit grumpy about the white menace. Plus, we woke up to temps this morning that dipped below zero. Ten degrees below zero. Brrrrrrrrrr!! I like this sort of weather only when I can enjoy it at home with Matt, Loki and some hot cocoa … or tea … I'm not picky!!

FYI: They're topically showing Groundhog Day today on Comedy Central three times today and then twice again tomorrow. If you haven't seen it, tune in … it's great!

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WOOHOO! Harry Potter 7-21-07


Well kids, you heard it here first … actually, you prolly didn't since it's been everywhere since I got up this morning … Harry Potter #7 (Harry Potter and the Deathly Hollows) is due out this summer. Just in time for my b'day! Yay!!!

In other news, I fear I am becoming addicted to strawberry cream cheese. Yum.