Woo Hoo!

Not to steal Joe's thunder, but he's been wanting a triathlon bike for quite some time now. After competing in a couple of triathlons this past summer, he discovered that he really enjoys the sport. However, his trusty old mountain bike just doesn't quite cut it when he's out there with the other racers. I didn't realize how expensive triathlons can be, between the swimming gear, running shoes, special clothing, and the most expensive part is the bicycle. Tri bikes can make a racer a lot faster, but the down side is that they are crazy expensive. Well, while Christmas shopping, I discovered a store that had some great sales on tri bikes, so I took Joe back on Monday. He looked at a couple and we ended up back at the store last night. The bike is an older model year and was over 55% off the original asking price, so we went ahead and got it for him. I have yet to see a tri bike on sale at such a low price! So he's all pumped, and once the ice and snow melt, I'm sure I won't be seeing much of him in the evenings as he'll be off riding. The store is cleaning it up and holding it for us until after Christmas, so it'll be his next week! The picture below is what his bike looks like, but taken from another website.

Christmas shopping ...

Joe and I ventured out into the snowy weather this weekend to do some Christmas shopping. We managed to pick up a couple of things, but along the way, got distracted. We've been wanting to get a large area rug for our living room to make it cozier and feel more complete. Well, Joe managed to find an 8x12 ft rug that has most of the colors, both accent and focus, of the room in it. The best part? It was on clearance! We found it at HomeGoods, the home store for Marshalls/TJMaxx, so the price was very reasonable even before it was marked down. We brought it home and it fits the space perfectly. The dogs seem to enjoy it too, since it keeps them from sliding around the hardwood floors as they chase each other. I'll try to post pictures soon, but the pictures don't do it justice.

Now if we could just get some pictures hung on the walls we'd be set!

The Other White Meat

As a disclaimer, I have grown up hating pork. My mother would make pork chops and other pork related dinners all too frequently (in my young opinion!) and I would struggle to finish them. I actually went through a time after graduating from high school until probably 2-3 years ago of never eating pork at all. Nothing. No pork chops, pork tenderloin, bacon, nothing.

Well, as most everyone knows, Joe likes pork. I started off by trying bacon, and am now wholeheartedly a fan of that. Occasionally we'll get stuffed pork chops from the grocery store, and I don't mind those either. A couple of months ago our dinner club prepared a pork tenderloin. I figured I'd try it and give it a chance - much to my surprise, I really enjoyed it!

This weekend I figured it was time once and for all to shake off my issues with the other white meat. I found a recipe that sounded really good and thought I'd try it. Last night was the big night, and I am proud to say I really impressed myself!! :) Even better, the recipe was incredibly fast and easy, so I'm going to share it. I mean, if I liked it, it's gotta be good! (And yes, Joe liked it. Of course, he likes pork anyway, so for him, this was just another good dinner, outside the realm of the normal spaghetti casserole and rice & bean burritos)

Rasberry and Thyme Pork
4 (3 oz) pork medallions
canola oil
1/3 cup chopped red onion
2 tbsp balsamic vinegar
3 tbsp orange juice
1/3 c raspberry preserves/jam
chopped fresh thyme to taste
salt and pepper to taste

Heat canola oil in saute pan. Saute pork in heated canola for 3 minutes. Turn pork over and saute the other side for an additional 3 minutes. Add red onion, vinegar and orange juice to pan and let cook for an additional 2 minutes. Add thyme, salt and pepper and continue cooking until pork is glazed.

I also steamed some fresh green beans, and used sea salt on both the pork and green beans (I love sea salt - it's so much better than regular salt, in my opinion!). Great dinner, and since our pork and green beans were on sale, it was cheap too!

Icicles Everywhere

Although it's still technically fall, winter is definitely here! We had a little bit of freezing rain over the weekend that made the roads slippery, but the ice started up again yesterday and has managed to coat everything. Luckily we haven't gotten the amounts that Oklahoma City and areas north and south of us have gotten. It's raining right now as the temps hold right at 32 degrees, so keep your fingers crossed that it waits until after rush hour tonight to freeze and turn into ice!

We thought we were in the clear waking up this morning - alarms, both the bedside and our cellphones (we were in preparation mode!) went off as usual. We turned on the TV to get the latest report, and saw just enough to learn that every school in the KC metro area is closed, the roads are wet but not too bad, and then the power went out. A minute or two later it came back on, stayed on for about 5 more minutes, and then shut off for good. We fumbled around the house, made sure our power line to our house and the electrical box were still up and functioning, and then started to get ready for work. About 45 minutes later, the power still hadn't come back and it was time to head out. Luckily, with the massive school closings, there was hardly anyone on the roads, so I made it to work in record time! Here's hoping that our power is back on when we get home, and we don't find two frozen solid pup-sicles inside! :)

Lazy but Productive Winter Weekend

We had my company's holiday party to attend Friday night. Much to our surprise, we had a pretty good time. Instead of the traditional hour long, state-of-the-company speeches given, the company decided to change tracks and instead spoke for about 5 minutes, then turned the back of the ballroom we were in into a "casino." Every person was given $5,000 in chips to play for about 2 1/2 hours. We figured we'd leave soon after dinner, but ended us staying until 11pm! It was a lot of fun for next to no money.

Saturday was pretty unproductive. We stayed around the house until about 2pm, when I decided it was time to drive a stretch of KC highway looking for possible store options. My family is looking to expand the sailboat store to KC, but since they live in St. Louis, I've been spending some time researching places and potential businesses for them. We had gotten freezing rain over Friday night and early Saturday morning, so we weren't out too long. We managed to stop and pick up some sand for the driveway and have a quick early dinner. We were thinking about going to the movies, but decided it was safer to stay in and watch a movie on TV.

I had decided last week that I wanted to start tackling the 3rd bedroom projects. It's now the only space in the house that we haven't touched since we moved in, other than throwing tons of boxes into. I had bought a tall bookcase and a shorter media storage to start, and found a great old desk last week for $16 that I plan on refinishing and using up there. Joe put together the bookcase and storage unit, while I started to unpacking probably 20 boxes of office supplies, books and movies. We still have some boxes left to unpack, but the room is at least not looking like a huge mess anymore! We haven't decided how to decorate the room, so I'm saving that for later - probably a spring or next summer project. For now, the goal is to have a functional office, and possibly second guest bedroom. We just need the guests! :)

Taking a Hiatus from Highlights

I am officially a brunette again. Yes, my hair frequently is dark enough to be called light brown, but I dyed it dark brown last night. Ok, I didn't actually do it. I went to the girl who has been cutting Joe's hair for the last year. I have been hair stylist shopping since coming to KC and decided it was time to try this girl. But anyway. It's a dark dark brown, probably as dark as my sister Jennifer's hair, and a little bit shorter (had to cut it too, of course). Oh, and did I mention that I love it! It catches me off-guard when I see myself in a mirror, but it's fun.

Amazing! It fits!

Last night I decided, in light of the weather forecast predicting a couple inches of snow, freezing rain and possibly ice, that it was high time to clean out the garage once and for all. We had it almost usable a month or so ago, but with all of the house projects ongoing, it became the storage unit for our old couches, old doors, wood from the door frames, etc. As soon as I got home, I started working on cleaning it up. I managed to drag the two old doors down to the basement, put some of the old wood in one of our trashcans, and the old door frames piled neatly in front of them. The lawn mower moved around to the back of the garage as well. I knew I wasn't going to be able to pull the couch to the basement by myself so I push it to the front wall of the garage, swept the whole thing out, and the proceeded, very cautiously I might add, to pull my car in. It is only a 1 car garage, and with bikes along the wall and all of the miscellaneous stuff in the back of the garage it was slightly scary but so fun at the same time!

Joe got home as I was pulling the car in, helped carry the couch to the basement and then I was able to pull my car all the way into the garage and close the garage door.

There have been a bunch of house projects that make living in the house seem so much more enjoyable, but I can't wait to have a nice dry, snow and ice free car in the mornings! (And yes, I'll share the garage with Joe.... sometimes! :) )