Audrey's Blog

Salsa Snob

I am a self-proclaimed salsa snob. I love salsa and am very, very picky about my salsa. Over the years, I've found only a few salsas that I truly like. 1) On the Border - the IN restaurant stuff, not the stuff they sell bottled in the store. 2) HEB/Central Market - These are fresh made and therefore have a limited shelf life. The problem is that we don't have HEBs up here in Dallas, and the closest Central Market is not exactly close to my house (almost 20 miles away). That combined with the limited shelf life makes it difficult to keep it in the house. The few jarred salsa I can handle are beyond expensive and at the rate Chris and I eat the stuff, I simply refuse to pay $6-$8 for a 12-16 oz jar.

Several years ago, I told a friend of ours that if he wanted to bring something for a dinner gathering at our house, he could bring chips and salsa. He showed up on our doorstep with 2 big bags from Central Market (home of the some best produce in the world) and said "you have a blender, right?". I was so enchanted by the resulting ambrosia of spicy goodness I almost told Chris that his services were no longer needed. Of course, he was almost as happy with our friend as I was (disturbing thought, huh?). Anyway, ever since that day, I have wanted to try my hand at making my own salsa and just never got around to do it - until this weekend.

Since the misery of morning sickness finally passed, my taste for spicy foods has come back with gusto. The lack of readily available, reasonably priced, and satisfactory salsa has been wearing on me. So, I finally found a recipe to give me a jumping off point to try making my own. And, the results were stellar if I do say so myself. If you care to try it for yourself, it's super simple. Here's what you'll need:

1 can whole tomatoes

1 can diced tomatoes (it's a texture thing)

½ small yellow onion

Juice of 1 whole lemon

4 jalapenos (3 seeded & deveined, 1 whole)
Remember, I like things spicy!

3 cloves crushed garlic

½ bunch cilantro (most of the stems removed)

Salt to taste

Toss it all in a blender and let 'er rip. Careful not to over blend or you'll end up with spicy V-8. It's best if you can let the flavors blend overnight in the fridge or at least an hour. Enjoy!

Trading Crack

It's an ongoing joke between Chris and me & me and Angie that we tend to trade "crack" (or addictions) back and forth. For instance, about 18 months ago, Chris got me started on Battlestar Glactica (which, BTW, I'm totally jonesin' for to come back in March). Then it was Smallville. He claims that every piece of "crack" he deals me is merely in retaliation for the ultimate "crack" Dana & I dealt him in way back college - CHOCOLATE! He swears he wasn't a chocoholic until he started dating me and met Dana. Yeah right!

There have been several forms of crack that Angie and I have dealt each other over the years. One of which has been authors. We're both avid readers. We find a new author and then devour everything they've ever written in a depressingly short amount of time leaving us on the hunt for more material. Last summer, Angie turned me onto 2 new authors (Julia Quinn & Lisa Kleypas). Their stuff kept me surprisingly busy for several months. When I ran out, I started trolling Half Price Books for fresh material and came across J.R. Ward and the Black Dagger Brotherhood series. I was instantly hooked. Of course, once I finished the 5 books in that series, I was on the hunt for more material. Having figured out that I am now embarrassingly addicted to vampire romance, Angie handed me the first 3 books in the Dark-Hunter series by Sherrilyn Kenyon. In exchange for that new piece of crack, I had to pass on the Black Dagger Brotherhood series. And so the cycle of trading crack continues … But, what of course would we do without each other??? Surely, we'd be bored to tears! :-)

 

PS … After having read Angie's blog last week, apparently I'm at least partially responsible for her newest addition - American Idol! Hah! And the cycle continues …

Jim & Angie’s Engagement Photos

It was a hoot to take a few minutes out of what was an otherwise crazy busy weekend to snap off a few photos for Jim & Angie's engagement portrait. This was my first opportunity to try out the new studio goodies my dear hubby, Chris, got me for Christmas - 2 inexpensive but functional lights - and the couple of pieces of material I picked up to function as backdrops. For a nominal investment (<$100), the results so far have been fairly decent. With a little Photoshop magic from Angie, I'm pretty sure they'll be more than adequate. Here's a link to the entire session - unedited (although I'm hoping Angie will post a few cropped & touched up ones), but here are a few of my favorites:

After we felt like we'd gotten several good ones of Jim & Angie, we did a few solo shots and then some shots for just plain fun …

Cycle for a Cure

This past Saturday Chris participated in a 12 hour cycle marathon benefiting the Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation (JDRF). It was an incredible event entirely organized and executed by our spin instructor extraordinaire, Mistress Monica. Juvenile Diabetes is a cause very near and dear to her heart. Her 9 year old, Ethan, was diagnosed with Type 1 diabetes at 21 months and has lived every day of his life since then coping with this disease.

50 teams of anywhere from 1 to 12 cyclists participated in the event. In all, there were 300+ riders. 8 riders completed the ENTIRE 12 HOURS! (Just thinking of that makes my butt hurt!) And, BTW, Monica also rode all 12 hours! XM provided the DJ for the event - flown in all the way from Washington - and all 12 hours of music ROCKED! Monica busted her butt for months pulling together sponsors, riders, cash donations, and prizes for the riders - lots of incredible prizes. Each hour, she had goodies to give away to that hour's participants. At the end of the night, she drew for several grand prizes the most grand of which was a weekend spa package for 2 to Lake Austin Spa (a $3500 value).

The energy of the entire day was phenomenal, but nothing compared to the emotion at 11:30pm (just 30 minutes to the end of the event) when Monica received and announced the final total raised for JDRF. Her goal was $30,000. Let's just say that when Monica does it, she does it big … the total was $66,000+! More than double her goal! And, we knew that donations would continue trickle in for a week or so. The final total will likely top $70,000!

For my part, I wasn't actually even supposed to be there. I was originally scheduled to be leaving Saturday for the Keller Williams Family Reunion (convention) in Atlanta. Of course, that was all scheduled prior to me finding out I was pregnant last fall. About 2 weeks ago, I made the final decision to forgo that trip in the interest of energy management and conservation. Since I wasn't scheduled to ride, I told Monica that I was hers to use for the day. She had done an incredible job of scheduling a slew of volunteers for the event, but it turned out that the one person who had no backup was her hubby, Andy, who was in charge of registration. So, that became my job - do whatever I could to help Andy. And, it turned out that it was a welcome assignment. I was able to free up Andy to act as the host-by-proxy that he was and to also take care of all the little things that cropped up during the day. I have to admit that while I wasn't on a bike for 12 hours, it was a pretty long day, but incredibly satisfying to know that I could help with such an amazing event.

On a final note - I have no firsthand experience with juvenile diabetes. Sometimes we help with and participate in events like these because it's a good thing to do, and, more importantly, because it's important to someone we care about. That was very much the case here. Or, at least it was until Saturday. Monica's son, Ethan, was there most of the day. From my vantage point at the registration desk, I watched him as he ran and played with his friends, checked his blood sugar, adjusted his pump, had a juice box, then played some more, had to stop because he didn't feel good, then back to it again. That cycle repeated itself several times during the day. It was heartbreaking to see that he couldn't just be a kid and not have to worry about anything more than his parents getting after him for running indoors (or something equally trivial like that). The hardest part came around 11:00pm. It was obvious he had had a long day and it was getting to him. (BTW, did I mention the trip to the ER the night before this because of a seizure? Yeah. And, he was back up and at 'em the next day … as were Monica & Andy. Wow.) It was so obvious that he felt horrible. And, honestly, he looked beyond pathetic. He just sat in Andy's arms. I really can't describe the picture adequately other than to say that I wanted to cry at how bad he felt (okay - maybe I did cry a little - damn material instincts kicking in). The original intent was for Ethan to be there for the kick off and the countdown at midnight, but that just wasn't in the cards for the little man. He ended up going home with one of his grandparents a few minutes later. Watching Ethan go through all of that Saturday (which in truth was just a normal day for him) really brought the entire day into focus for me. When I went up to the cycle studio a few minutes later to hear the final totals announced, I had a new appreciation for what everyone in that room had contributed to and what Monica had accomplished with all of her blood, sweat, and tears.

You can check out some snapshots of the event here: http://blog.audreyreed.info/photos/jdrf_cycle_marathon/.

Super Tuesday - But Not In Texas

With so many primary elections happening today, I began to wonder when I would get my chance to Rock the Vote in this Presidential election year. Mark your calendars, primary elections in Texas are March 4^th with early voting February 19^th - 29^th. Check out your specific county's websites for information on how and where to vote. (I recommend a Google search for <county name> county elections, i.e., "Collin County Elections".) REMEMBER - just because you voted somewhere during the last election doesn't mean you'll vote in the same place this time. If you go there and your polling place has changed, they may let you vote by paper ballot but it'll likely not get counted. Please don't waste your vote that way! Take 5 minutes to figure out where you're supposed to go. Or, even better, take advantage of early voting. It's sooo much easier!

I'll refrain from getting up on my soap box again about the necessity of voting. Instead, I'll reference you back to a post I made last October (Civic Duty). Here's the jist - if you don't vote, don't bitch.

On one last different but related note … The State of Texas is offering its citizens the opportunity to VOTE on the look of the new license plates. Check it out at: http://apps.dot.state.tx.us/services/vehicle_titles_and_registration/vote_plate.htm.

How Pathetic Can I Be?

The answer is VERY. On advice of my OB and at Chris' insistence, I finally went and got a flu shot today. And, OMG, it hurt! And, it STILL hurts! <insert all kinds of pathetic moans here> Now, I'm off to make myself feel better with a chocolate milk shake. Because, we all know that ice cream makes things like this feel better, right?

Okay, so that wasn't much of a post, but I feel better for having gotten to whine publically.

Incredibly Productive Weekend

Every once in a while, do you ever have one of those insanely productive weekends? The kind of weekend that leaves you needing to go back to work to get a break but in a good sort of way? Well, this last weekend was that for Chris and me. With so much STUFF to do looming ahead of us in preparation for the baby coming, it seemed like an insurmountable task.

Our biggest accomplishment was the clearing out of the box room aka the soon-to-be nursery. The box room has always been my dirty little secret. It seems like a waste of perfectly good space in our house, but it wasn't being used and I have a horribly hard time parting with perfectly good boxes. Unfortunately, since the photo was taken last August it had actually gotten worse (if you can believe that???). When Chris left Celerity, a number of boxes of miscellaneous books and other desk crap were deposited in there for lack of a better place to store them. A crib that we inherited from our neighbors (Thanks Kathy & Darren!) was also put in there. Add in other random crap that it seemed like a good idea at the time to store in there, and we had our work cut out for us to get prepared for painting the to-be-nursery. Amazingly enough, we made incredible progress in just about 2 ½ hours Saturday afternoon. You can check out the "after" picture here: http://blog.audreyreed.info/baby_reed/2008/02/nursery-progres.html.

We also cleaned out the attic space by the nursery so that some of the stuff from the box room could be properly stored. Then cleaned out 2 more bookcases to make another trip to Half Price Books and listed the furniture from Chris' office that was displaced when we moved my office home in January on Craig's list and even sold some of it Sunday. The dining room made more progress to full recovery from the explosion of stuff from Chris' office during that same move.

After all of that, we still got to head out to enjoy our annual Super Bowl party! By the time we got home, we were exhausted but in that good-we-got-soooo-much-done way. I can only hope for more weekends like that in the next couple of months! We might actually have this house in shape before the baby comes. :-)

My Super Bowl Victory

For the last 8 years, it has been a Super Bowl tradition for Chris and I to attend the Super Bowl Chili Cook-Off (SBCC) hosted by Bruce, one of my former Raytheon co-workers, and his wife, Fawn. This is their 18^th year of hosting the party, and each year it gets a little grander - both the game watching and the chili cooking-off. Festivities usually begin 2 hours before kickoff. For guests' game watching enjoyment, there are 2 big screens & a theater projector setup. For those of us who are as much about the chili cook-off as the game, 3 years ago Bruce had to run an entire separate 20 amp circuit in his garage to power the up-to-20 Crockpot entries of chili and the big screen that resides there (so you don't miss any important plays or commercials while you're sampling & judging the chili).

Every time I can remember entering "Audrey's Awesome Aggie Chili" into the chili cook-off, I have taken home the 2^nd place trophy. (BTW, Bruce's trophies are legendarily unique.) As Chris said - always the chili bridesmaid, never the chili bride. In fact, he even wanted to me to rename my chili this year to "Bridesmaid Chili". Ugh! But, I could at least still claim to have truly award winning chili. However, my luck took a turn last night. When Bruce announced the 2^nd place winner and it wasn't me, my heart sank. I couldn't believe I didn't even place this year. Of course, my darling hubby leaned over and proclaimed that I had obviously won this year. I honestly wasn't buying his confidence. But, HE WAS RIGHT! I finally WON!  Now, I get to claim not just Award Winning Chili, but Blue Ribbon Chili. 

Check out the 1^st place trophy (yes, that's toilet paper) and the best prize in the history of the SBCC:

Big News in the Reed Household

And now for the real reason my blogging was so sporadic in November & December …

As I blogged about back in October, Chris and I went on a cruise last fall. When we returned from the cruise at the end of October, we thought we were settling in for the normal round of holiday festivities. Little did we know at that point that something else entirely was around the corner for us …

Our first hint was the fact that I couldn't seem to shake the jet lag when we got back. It seemed like I was doing good to make it from bed to the couch and back to bed for days after we returned. Well, put that with a couple of positive pregnancy tests and things became a little more clear. Add in morning sickness that was more like "all day" sickness and it became crystal clear that we would be welcoming a new member of the Reed family into the world in early July (the 7^th to be as exact as a "due" date can be).

The normal round of holiday festivities became a round of random excuses why we wouldn't be attending said festivities when the real reason was that there wasn't much that could convince me to drag my tired and crappy feeling body off the couch. Chris was the best through almost 2 months doing all the things that I couldn't muster up the energy to do. One of the best Christmas presents I got was waking up on the 23^rd and not feeling horrible. After that, it has gotten steadily better. I'd say I almost feel normal again, but anyone who's ever been pregnant knows that there's no real feeling "normal" during the whole process. :-)

So, there you go - for those of you who thought this day would never come … well, I wondered myself sometimes. We've been married almost 8 years (and together for 14 - yikes!). There was a time when it was if we would have children. It slowly became when we would have children, and now seems like the perfect time (at least according to the Big Guy upstairs and who are we to argue).

My plan is to keep the baby stuff in a separate blog: blog.audreyreed.info/baby_reed. I may make a few milestone posts here, but I'm sure there are a good many people who don't necessarily care to read about all the gory details of pregnancy. Of course, I'm not sure I'm completely ready to experience all the gory details of pregnancy!

Keep your fingers crossed and maybe even send up a prayer for Chris, me, and the Reedlet. Heavens knows we're going to need it - especially the Reedlet … he's got us for parents!!!