Friday Night Fun

I've always been a firm believer in "date nights"...but I've also realized that so-called "date nights" aren't always possible, either.

After we got married, we set the goal of having one date night a month.  In our minds, we would pack up, head out of town for the night and go do something fun--maybe a concert, festival, a new restaurant, shopping...just something that we could do together.

After the second month, real life set in.  We were lucky to have a weekend evening where the both of us were around AND we hadn't already committed to something.  Eventually, "date night" started to fall to the wayside and we just started going through the motions of married life.

Finally, by this Spring, we realized we really needed to have date nights again.  As mentioned earlier, we were going through the motions but not really, truly enjoying time as just the two of us.  We had plenty of time with OTHER people, but as just the two of us???  Not really!

Thankfully, we were in the midst of the Lenten Season when we came to this realization.  For most people, that doesn't mean anything to them--but for us, that means we forgo meat on Fridays during Lent.  And in order to get my husband to eat a meatless dish, it's gotta be hella good...

And that brought our date nights back to life!  We would pick a new meatless, semi-gourmet meal to cook on Friday night...then, we'd spend the evening preparing the meal, plating it up and then just really sitting back and catching up.  It was so nice to have a conversation that went beyond who paid the water bill, if the laundry needed switched out and what errands had to be taken care of the next day!

But one thing was still missing.

The music!

Granted, we have music channels on our tv--but you can't control what they play!  And you just don't want to risk throwing off the flavor of your food because of bad tunes ;-)

As the months progressed, we tried to make due and use the time in the kitchen to talk and catch-up...but I knew we could still have more fun than that!

The other day, we ran to the movie store and by the door they had the best thing ever--a Crosley all-in-one player!

I have wanted one ever since we bought our bungalow.  They look like they're something straight out of the 1930's or 1940's--but rather it has all your modern features, too.

Well, mostly modern.

It has your AM/FM radio, mp3 port, CD player, cassette player AND a record player!

I knew we would like having a radio and cd player in the living room--but I knew we would really, REALLY enjoy having a record player for our date nights!

We picked up the Crosley player, unpacked it and set it up right away.  It was a perfect fit for the top of our china cabinet!

The next night was Date Night.  After work, we ran to the grocery store to pick up some appetizer stuff (more on that in a moment) and then we stopped in at our local music store in the heart of Aggieville.

We had a BLAST!  My parents collected records growing up so it was fun to pull the albums that they used to listen to.  They also had a bunch of the music that Justin grew up listening to--and all on vinyl!

Before we knew it, we had already killed an hour just looking at all the different albums available on record.  Justin grabbed several records and they were only $6 a piece!  I decided to put all my eggs in one basket and went for the new Norah Jones album--on WHITE vinyl, nonetheless!  Isn't it a beaut?!

We hurried home and put the first record on--we knew right away that we had found the missing piece to our date nights!  Some people would disagree with me, but there's something really great about hearing a song on vinyl, versus CD or mp3.  And heck, it's just kinda fun to watch the record go round and round!

Now, I can say our date nights are finally complete!  Good grooves, good food and good company--can't get better than that :-)

Oh--and about good food...here's the recipe we tried for our appetizer!  It's very inexpensive, super easy and quite filling.  We made it again the following night and Justin added pepperoni because, well, he could!  For those of you who know your spices, you'll appreciate that it came out of a Penzey's catalog!

Jenny's Tomato Bread

1 loaf French bread, sliced lengthwise

3 TB. butter (Mary uses unsalted)

1/2-1 tsp. GRANULATED GARLIC POWDER (to taste)

3-4 fresh tomatoes, thinly sliced

1 tsp. KOSHER-STYLE FLAKE SALT (use 1/2 tsp. if starting with salted butter)

2 TB. olive oil (I used grapeseed oil with great success)

2 tsp. TURKISH OREGANO

8 oz. sliced Mozzarella cheese

Preheat oven to 500°. Spread each slice of bread evenly with butter. Sprinkle with GARLIC. Line the tomato slices down the center of the bread. Note: if using juicy garden tomatoes, let the slices sit on paper toweling for a minute before using. Sprinkle with salt, olive oil and OREGANO. Top with cheese slices and place on a foil-lined baking sheet. Bake at 500° until the cheese melts and the bread begins to toast, about 5-10 minutes. If you wish to brown the cheese, put the oven on broil for the last minute, and watch carefully. Slice the bread into 4-inch sections and serve. Prep. time: 10 minutes Cooking time: 5-10 minutes Serves: 8

Dallas For the 4th of July

Happy One-Week-After-The-4th-of-July, y'all!  We got in late Saturday evening from our trip to Dallas and as always, Dallas on the 4th of July was full of surprises!

Last time Justin and I went to Dallas for the 4th, we got engaged...needless to say, I didn't see that one coming at all, so it definitely proved to be a surprise!

This year, we decided to head down South again--the plans were somewhat similar to last time.  We would go to a family barbecue hosted by Justin's cousins, stay with his best friend Isaac (aka the "Brother From a Different Mother"), celebrate the 4th, go out and just relax.  Isaac and Justin first met when they lived in the dorms at K-State--Justin was on the basketball team, Isaac was on the track team.  Once they got out of the dorms, they moved into a house with two other friends and they are all super close to this day!  Anytime Justin and Isaac are together, you know there's fun to be had! 

And for the most part, our plans went exactly like that.

BUT--before we left, I felt our house needed to be a bit patriotic...and of course, if we decorated for the 4th of July, maybe people wouldn't think we were gone!  I had given up on buying buntings for our front porch--they're not the cheapest thing in the world and with me working a commission-only job, I didn't feel that we could justify the expense.  Until...Walgreen's had them on sale on July 2nd and I scored four buntings for $10!!!  I couldn't turn down a bargain like that AND we could leave behind a patriotic front porch!

We left Manhattan at 3:00 am on Wednesday morning...and yes, we're crazy!  We wanted to get down there decent time BUT we were worried about hitting the road after we both spent long days at work on Tuesday.  So, after supper we took a nap and left in the dark instead :-)

We arrived in Dallas at 10:15 am!!!  That included stopping in Oklahoma City for gas and letting the dog out to run and play.  Oh--and as it turns out, Mitzi does VERY well riding in the car for long distances!  She just laid in her crate and looked out the front window or she slept.  Guess we didn't need the doggie tranquilizers after all :-) 

Once we got to Isaac's place, we loaded up and headed to Justin's cousins.  They had just moved to a different house 3 months ago but they already had their house put together...it seemed more like they'd been living there 3 YEARS.  Wish I could have said the same thing about us when we bought our place!  Anyhow, we were pretty impressed with the house--especially knowing what the new-construction houses go for in that development.  This house came with a covered back porch, granite counters and professional kitchen, study, theatre room, billards room, and I can't even remember how many bedrooms and bathrooms.  It was great getting to celebrate their new home with all the family!

After the barbecue with Justin's family, we met up with one of Isaac's clients to swim and shoot fireworks.  Isaac told us ahead of time that their house sits on 40-acres in the heart of Arlington and is "pretty sweet" but let me tell you, I had no idea what we were getting into!

We got to his client's house and the kids couldn't wait to get into the pool!  It was actually cooler in Dallas (96 degrees) than in Kansas (105 degrees) but it was still miserably hot...I don't blame the kids for wanting to swim!

This little blondie is Isaac's son, Tristin.   I hadn't seen him since our wedding nearly two years ago and ohhhhhhhhhhhhh, do I love this little boy or what?! As he continues to grow, he just gets cuter and cuter!  I like to call him my blonde Eskimo baby which, eh, probably isn't the most racially sensitive phrase.  Isaac was born and raised in Alaska but he's actually Tongan--which makes Tristin Tongan, not Eskimoan.  If that's even a word!  But anyhow, we feel blessed to call him our nephew!  He has the "Uncle Justin" part down VERY well but he's still working on "Aunt Bria"--but, what kid doesn't struggle with my name?! 

Okay, so the pool at this place was freakin' awesome...check it out!!!  That building behind the pool is literally the "pool house."  There's a small pool in the walkway that flows down into main pool--looked like something out of a movie!

That was the awesome pool...check out the backside of this house!  It's not the best picture, but I was trying to sneak a shot while "acting" like I was looking at something on my phone ;-)  The main level is where the white columns are; the walk-out basement is where the brick columns are AND the upper level is above the railing way up top.  On the far left side of this picture are the stairs that lead up to the balcony and kitchen.  This place was absolutely insane.  The bathroom by the pool was pure marble and I kid you not--the bathroom alone is probably worth more than our entire house!  The "main" kitchen was one of those professional kitchens with a $30,000 gas range that was used by their private chef.  The fridge was one of those built-in all-glass units and at first, Justin thought it was a freezer.  I kept saying, "No, honey--we're not in the freezer aisle of the grocery store!   The thing is really a fridge!" and finally he noticed the pickles, mayo, eggs, whatever and took my word for it ;-)  There were also two other kitchens in the house that I didn't see, and that's probably okay!

The house sat on 40 acres of wooded land in the heart of Arlington and came with its own 9-hole golf course! It had multiple guest houses that put any house where we live to shame...there were also 20-foot tall stone gazebos scattered throughout the property.  And they had their own outdoor living room complete with a built-in fireplace and retractable window covers!  Did I already mention this place was insane?!  lol...

Our friend Isaac, with his son Tristin (the blondie)--and Tristin's brother, Braden, by the outdoor living room

Again, not the best picture because I didn't want to look like a tourist (!!!), but the super bright green area in the far back was where the golf course started!

Now, if a house has such a dramatic back-side, what can the front look like??? 

Isn't the front freakin' insane?!  If you walked out of the basement, you would come out through the little wooden door in the middle.  The driveway was all brick and as you can see, it's fairly large--and that's just HALF of the front parking area.  The driveway also forked over to the garage and then curved up the hill to the gated entrance.  Plus, if you can see on the left edge of the picture, they had a fountain!  Why would I be surprised?  Of course, they'd have a huge fountain out front!  When I told my friend Angie that this place was a "mansion," I wasn't kidding!  When she pulled up to meet us, all the two of us could do was laugh!  I mean, seriously--two Kansas farm girls spending their 4th of July at a mansion?!  Who woulda thought!  Oh, and should I mention I was wearing a $15 sundress from Maurice's?!  Ha!

Behind Justin's right shoulder you can see the archway to the garage...the little windows are also part of the garage structure!

Eventually, it was time to call it a night and reflect back on the independence that our country takes for granted and celebrate the sacrifices our service men and women make every day.  Right now, we have a good friend on his fifth--yes, fifth--deployment to the Middle East...with having a good friend currently deployed overseas, you really start to realize that how easy we have it here in the United States.

Anyhow, enough sappiness.

The next day, Justin and Isaac went to Six Flags.  You couldn't pay me enough to go there so Angie and I decided to hit up some thrift stores in the Dallas proper area.  Most of the stores were pretty lame but then we found the Salvation Army near the University Park area and holy cow--this place was like it's own little mall!  It had showrooms of furniture, home decor, home appliances, a whole room dedicated just to Women's Clothing...it was uh-mazing!!!  And the stuff was in great shape--now wonder the parking lot was jam-packed when we got there!

Finally, we just kind of spent Friday hanging out and running errands.  I had some work to get done so we made a Starbuck's stop and then--out of nowhere--popped up a Whole Foods grocery store.  Hello, danger zone!

I told Justin he could sit in the car and fry or come inside with me...and since it was hotter than Hades in Texas (but still 10 degrees cooler than Kansas), he agreed to tag along with me.  And he was glad he did!  We stocked up on our usual non-perishables (ie $2.99 bottles of wine!) and then we tried some new salsa and homemade peanut butter cups (only because they had his name on them--literally!).  Turned out, Justin LOVED both the salsa and peanut butter cups.  In fact, before we hit the road on Saturday morning, Justin requested one last stop at Whole Foods!  And then when we got back home, he said "Man, I wish we had a Whole Foods here."   Guess I won't have to fight him on going to the crunchy, granola-y stores anymore :-)

While we were out and about Friday, we ate at some awful Barbecue joint . Looking back, I should have trusted my gut--barbecue joints in nice buildings usually suck. It's the holes-in-a-wall that crank out the best food!

Once the sun set, we headed to the Uptown District to have drinks with some friends.  I could act like I know all about the Uptown District, but honestly, I don't know much about it!  It's in the heart of downtown Dallas and it looked like it was once the original business district.  The place kind of reminded me of Aggieville, but on steriods and a bit less trashy.  That said, is it even still comparable to Aggieville?!  lol...anywho, they had some really neat bars, valet parking (for only $5!!!) and fans with misting hoses, too! 

All in all, it was a great trip!  We never feel like we see enough of our friends and it makes the long drives worth every minute.  In just a few short months, Justin and Isaac will be back together for their former roommate's wedding.  We're already counting down the days until we see each other again and hopefully, Tristin will join us too!  Happy Week-After-The-4th-of-July, y'all!

An Evening With The Taste of Home Cooking School

Just over a week ago, my girlfriends and I did something I had always wanted to do--we went to the Taste of Home Cooking School when it came through town!

When I was a little girl, I loved looking through my Grandma Marcene's Taste of Home magazines...the recipes always looked SO good and I loved reading the anecdotal stories that went along with each dish.

And to this day, I'm still a Taste of Home fan.  But now I don't have to flip through their magazines--I just head straight to their website!

So when Jen asked if I wanted to go to the Cooking School when it came to K-State last week, I was game!

For just $10, we received tickets to the show, a tote bag full of samples, two Taste of Home magazines, bunches of coupons and chances at the door prizes.  Oddly enough, one of the coupons was for 20% off any hair service where I get my hair done--you can bet that I'll be using that when I'm due for another round of color :-)

Anyhow, our "chef" for the evening was Jamie Dunn.  She's from Oklahoma but based on her drawl, I would have thought she was from somewhere further South than that!  But she was great to listen to and I really learned a lot of great tips that she shared as she made the various recipes.

McCain Auditorium was transformed into a cooking stage for the night!

They projected the cooking area onto the large overhead screen so we could see everything Jamie did

Speaking of recipes, over the course of 3 hours, Jamie made a total of ten recipes.  Now, that's some really fast cooking!!!  Being the space-cadet that I am, I already recycled the magazine and I can't remember the proper names of the dishes, but I'll still try my best...

Chocolate Strawberry Shortcakes

Peanut Butter Chocolate Chip Cheesecake

Taco Casserole

Johnsonville(R) Italian Meatballs

Mexican Shrimp Bisque

Asparagus Strudel

Gallo(R) Chipotle Lime Chicken

For the life of me, I couldn't find the other three recipes that she made that evening--and at this point, I can't remember what the names were, either!  Regardless, I do remember that when Jamie made them, they looked GOOD!

All in all, it was a great evening!  If you ever have a chance to attend one of their Cooking Schools, you definitely need to go and make sure you take your girlfriends with you.  When you combine great friends and good food, what could be better?!

Floating Down the River

Last month, my brother called and told me that Justin and I were going on a float trip the weekend of August 13.  Oh really, we were???

My brother had just finished his first-ever float trip and the group was already making plans for a follow-up trip...thus, he and everyone else had already decided that we were joining them!

I grew up on the Republican River and I have to say, we never once floated it so I was curious to see what the almighty Republican was like.  On occassion, we'd fish the river but aside from that, I never really "experienced" it.  My major memory of the river was the battle between Kansas and Nebraska when Nebraska violated the Republican River Compact.  Being the daughter of a farmer who's land is heavily irrigated, this was a big issue in our household!

A more recent issue--If you have been following the problem involving bodies of water in Kansas this summer, you'll know most of them have been plagued with Blue Green Algae.  The presence of the algae has forced many area lakes to shut down until the problem was solved.

So when we found out the Republican was plagued with the algae, did it stop us from floating down the river?!  Not at all!  Are we stupid?  Maybe :-)  But really, it was kinda like going to Mexico--just don't drink the water!!!!

Yeah, check out that lovely green water!  And that's in the "clear" area...there were sections that were bright green and STUNK to high heaven!  So what did we do?  Hung around for a good 45 minutes so that the guys could carve initials into a huge "cliff" of rock banking.  Once again, are we stupid?  Maybe!

All in all, it was a blast...and super relaxing!  There were about 30 of us, ranging in age from 55 to 5.  We put the rafts in just outside of Clyde and got out just south of Clifton--I would guess the float was about 6-7 miles long.  Most of the water was only knee-deep so we were able to float without getting "high-centered" too often.  Russ, the ringleader, had fine tuned all the plans...there were flat bottom boats equipped with umbrellas to carry ice, adult beverages, food, shoes, clothes, you name it.  They even managed to hang a boom-box from the umbrella so we had tunes for our ride!

Unfortunately, I am an idiot and only applied sunscreen to my shoulders...and I didn't even apply it very well, at that.  After 6 hours in the water, I was a bit red!  Even my fair-skinned husband (haha!) got a bit of sun on his back...and yes, black people do "sunburn" and yes, they do get tan lines!   I'm counting down the days until my legs and chest start peeling--nothing better than looking like a lizard when I report back to school, right?!

It's been a while since I included a music video, so I thought the Doobie Brother's "Black Water" might be an appropriate choice (even though our water was green--wink wink).  And yes, I realize it's about the mighty Mississippi and not the Republican, but play along folks :-)

Music Maniacs

It seems that all we did this past weekend was check out live music!

It started on Friday evening with BeauSoleil at our City Park.  BeauSoleil, French for "Beautiful Son," is a Cajun band from Louisianna...with Justin being from the region, I thought it would be fun to check them out!

Little did we know that they're a Grammy-award winning band...and there was no charge for admission!  I have to give some props to our city for being able to bring them in time and time again in recent years.  Even though most of their songs were in what I assumed to be French or Creole and we had no idea what they were signing about, we still bought a CD to take home with us.

The newspaper misprinted the start time of the event, so we were a bit early...but it gave us a chance to sit back and admire just how pretty our pavilion and stage is!

Live with BeauSoleil!

Then last night...well, it was entertaining!  And a bit risque!

George Clinton and the Parliament Funkadelic were the headlining act at the Smoky Hills River Festival.  It had been close to 20 years since I had been to the River Fest, Justin had never been AND he had never gone to a real concert before.  Therefore, it became absolutely necessary that we go!

The man is 70 years old...and STILL getting down!  If you saw him from the back, you'd never know he was 70...but then he turns around and the eyes tell it all.  Pretty obvious that he's seen some fun in his day...
We were lucky--we scored admission buttons for just $10 AND we sat in the fourth row.  For a first-time concert experience, it was a great one for Justin!

I do have to wonder what some people were thinking when they brought their small children along...Maybe they're not quite familiar with George Clinton and the P-Funk???  There were some sights that would have made my grown brother blush!

That said, I'm hoping I can post some videos from the concert...but until I figure that out, here are some pictures!

Justin doing his silly "#1" before the concert started...I jokingly told him it would be our way of remembering it as his first concert!

The musicians slowly entering the stage

The man himself!!!  He took off his hat to reveal a wave cap...there is NO hair on this man's head!  Quite surprising considering he's known for his outrageous dreads

This dude was killing me...talk about an emaciated body, visible ribs and all!  And he strapped on a handtowel to form a diaper!

George Clinton and his back-up vocalists

Their tambourine man on vocals

This gal was George Clinton's granddaughter.  She came on for one song where she both sang and rapped...She was pretty good!

Two of the guitarists were featured at the very end

Georgie Boy did a quick cap change at the end of his show and gave the red one to the audience before leaving for the night

The Summer Top 10...In No Particular Order

Summer break is finally HERE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I have so many plans for summer and I hope they all come to fruition!

1.  Finish staining the fence.  Who were we kidding when we thought it'd only take a few days...

2.  Paint the back stoop to match the front porch.

3.  Install shelving in the kitchen "cubby"...and maybe go ahead and paint the kitchen grey while my work schedule is slower



4.  See George Clinton & Parliament Funkadelic in concert

5.  Roadtrip for a meal at Gate's (this is #1 on Justin's to-do list!)

6.  Clean out the basement and our closets...then have a garage sale!

7.  Read!  I already picked up one book that isn't very captivating, might be moving on to the second one fairly quickly.

8.  Learn to knit.  The class starts in July!

9.  Learn to can.  Last year so much of our produce went to waste because we couldn't eat it fast enough. 

 

10.  And finally, relax.

Number ten might be the hardest for me to achieve--I have a hard time sitting still.  However, I'm sure I can get used to not running around 24/7.  There are so many other "small" tasks I want to achieve this summer but it will be nice working only 20, rather than 60, hours a week.  Summer break always goes way too fast but I hope that this year I will be able to get a few things done!

Batter Up!

Last night was Justin's first softball game...ever.

A few months ago, Justin came home from work and announced that his company was forming a city-league softball team and he was signing up to play.

I stopped dead in my tracks and asked him, "Have you ever played baseball???"

His response, "Not really.  When we were little, we would find a dirt patch and hit tennis balls with big, long sticks."

My next question: "Do you even know how the game of baseball works?"

Justin: "You hit the ball and run around bases.  Can't be that hard."

Me:  "Are you sure you want to do this?"

Justin:  "Yup.  I can hit a ball, I can run and I can catch things.  I'm pretty sure I can do this, Briaaaaaaaaaaaaaa (when he drags out the "a" I can tell he's slightly annoyed with me)"

Me:  "If you say so.  But do they even make gloves big enough to fit your ginormous hands?"

Justin: "I already called Dick's in Topeka and they carry extra large sizes so I'm going there this weekend to get one."

Fast-forward to that following Saturday and sure enough, we found ourselves at Dick's Sporting Goods in Topeka.  As promised, they had extra large sizes in stock but even the biggest glove barely fit Justin's hand.  Something told me this could be interesting!

It was finally time for Justin's softball game to start last night.  His team was to take the field first--as Justin's running out of the dug-out to his position in outfield (hehe) I noticed he forgot his glove.  I tried to get his attention but it wasn't until the rest of his team yelled at him that he even noticed!  Ohhhhhh, man!

Justin is in the orange.  And yup, he has his back to everyone.  Does this remind you of those old pictures we all have of us digging in the grass or doing kartwheels while playing outfield?

Eventually, it was Justin's turn at bat.  He struck out his first time but then hit a short ball into the infield his second time at bat...It was pretty obvious he didn't even need to run to first base so he gently put his bat down on the plate and walked back to the dug out.  Oh, well!

Justin made sure to wear long pants so his legs "wouldn't get all roughed up" in case he had to do any sliding ;-)

At 14-4, the umpire called the game.  But hey, the guys survived five innings!

We got in the truck to leave and Justin was definately frustrated.  He was bored playing right field and wanted in on the action--maybe like at first base.  The ump had a terrible strike zone.  Their pitcher definately choked and the team needed more practice...yada yada yada.

After some further talking, Justin realized that maybe softball wasn't the sport for him. Heck, Michael Jordan tried crossing over into professional baseball and look at how that turned out!  But most importantly, the guys--and even Justin--did have fun and it was entertaining to watch them!