Weekend recap

It was a lazy weekend for us. Friday we had Giuseppe's pizza and wings which was delicious! I called ahead to get takeout and thankfully I did - there was a waiting line out the door. Their food is always worth the wait though. We watched The Rocker with Rainn Wilson. It was just so so. We really enjoy Rainn as Dwight Schrute from The Office but this movie was more geared toward teeny-boppers similar to Mean Girls and other such movies.

Saturday we worked around the house - laundry, gardening, boat projects. We went to Bob's 2x on Saturday! Our boat trailer is almost brand new. Sandy and Kevin are now out on vacation until March 9, so we'll miss them next weekend. Saturday night we went out to dinner with DH's dad and step mom to a local favorite, The Chart House. The food is always top notch and my in-laws go there so often, everyone knows their names so it's like their 'Cheers'. They've got a new manager who wasn't very friendly as the previous manager, but Chef Alex was there and friendly and courteous as usual. His personal recommendation - the seasonal Cashew Crusted Sole. We had already ordered the Pu Pu platter as an app before he came out to greet us. He sent out some extra polenta fries which were superb - what can be better than fried grits?! Also on the platter: lobster spring rolls, cajun shrimp and scallops with mango salsa - yum!

And of course, I had to try Chef's recommendation. DH's dad and I both had the sole. Who could have thought cashew crust on fish? Oh it was good. Served with fingerling potatoes and grilled veggies. We all had the wonderful salad bar as well - fresh tossed caesar salad, caviar, the best salad dressing.

DH had prime rib and a HUGE Australian lobster tail and MIL had another seasonal item - hazelnut trout with shrimp, parmesan risotto and veggies. As always, we finished off dinner with a molten lava cake dessert (had to order that right when we arrived -
Godiva Chocolate Liqueur, molten center, Dreyer’s vanilla ice cream, served with warm
chocolate sauce and Heath Bar Crunch) and the best creme brulee I have ever tasted. Man that was a good dinner. DH and I were stuffed after and basically went home and went to bed.

Sunday was one of the worst days of weather we've had in a while. We couldn't get much outside work done at all. It started off with dark gray skys and then wind and sideways rain. And it was COLD, maybe no warmer than 60. I was out on the phone talking to my SIL when Rufus and I saw this:

The pool was covered in suds!! For a second it looked like snow, but then my brain set in and reminded me that while it's cold, it wasn't that cold, then I noticed the suds being wisked away by the 20 MPH gusts of wind. I ran inside to alert DH and he nonchalantly said, oh, yeah I put some treatment in there and that's normal. Nice of him to tell me and Rufus. ;) All was forgiven when he pulled out this delicious, perfectly smoked chicken a short time later.

Today is my MIL's birthday - Happy Birthday! It's freezing here so we're not going out to the monthly dog night at Ritters. Maybe next month.

Today's the day

Today's the day of the official start of my blogging. I guess the whole idea of blogging isn't anything new, I'm just late to jump on the bandwagon. Journal writing was never really my thing and as I'm getting older, I think it would be nice to have accounts of the events of my life to look back on one day.

I'm planning on using this blog as a place to jot down a few lines of the day's events, possibly my opinions on current events, DIY home projects in process or in thought, and of course updates on life with my wonderful husband and our pup Rufus. I'll probably use the reflection blogging format, the daily post will be notes of the previous day's happenings and current opinions. Maybe this blog will help motivate me to get into photography more, with the idea that I need pics of the day to post here. I'd like that, but we'll see how it actually turns out a few months down the road.

Here are a couple pics to start out the blog.
First is DH and I on our wedding day 08/20/05, and second is our standard poodle pup Rufus.

So ok, let's just start with Nov. 1 Saturday.

Another beautiful weekend in FL. We made our way to Home Depot to purchase more items for our fun moulding project. We did find a good deal on 'pro-packs' of base moulding for about $55 each which includes about 120 linear feet of nice decorative wood, primed and ready for semi-gloss paint. We went through the first 2 packs a few weekends back, finishing most of the house - started in the den, did the kitchen, entry, living room and a little of our bedroom. Gosh, it looked soo much better. This last pack should cover the rest of our bedroom, all the closets and the office and guest bedroom. I am so glad we threw out the base moulding from the previous owner. There would have been no amount of Kiltz paint that could have really sealed away that nasty nicotine stain and smell. (the state of the house when we bought it would have been a good no-smoking campaign if I ever saw one! So gross what it did to the house, can't imagine what it does to the body. If you're going to smoke, please think of the people that may live in your house one day and smoke outside!)

We also decided to redo the door casings. They had kits which included precut casings and the square blocks, but at $15 each for the interior doors, we decided to get pro-packs of the casings for $35 and purchase the decorative square corner blocks separately since we're redoing both sides of all of the doors in the house. We're also going to replace the interior doors with nice 6 panel style doors. The look we're going for is actually in this week's Home Depot ad. Just overlook the paneling on the walls and this is how our place should look soon :)
We painted those and the new pack of base moulding and will probably work on that this weekend. We did get a nice casing for the interior of the main entry door. My husband (DH) nailed that in and I puttied and painted it and it makes the entry look 100x nicer! Now I've just got to decide on a paint color for that wall, change out the entry light and get some different shelving for the brick wall and it will be all done!


Saturday was DH's dad's birthday, so we went out to Stonewood for a nice dinner. It was ok. The service has been better other times we've gone there, but maybe it lacked because this was a Saturday night. The food was good, and everyone enjoyed it so that worked out.

Sunday was the day we actually did the entry door casing, many many loads of laundry and relaxed a bit.

Monday I had another chiropractor appt. Back in June of this year, Rufus and I were at Petsupermarket to get his food. A bulldog, or some breed similar was being pushed in a shopping cart when he/she jumped out of the cart (wasn't wearing a leash, which is store policy) and came running at us. Rufus pulled quickly to protect me and I guess I threw my right foot forward to brace myself and totally twisted my lower back. The next day I was in really bad pain (not used to these types of pain yet at just 26!!). So went to the phone book and found a chiropractor who was close to my work. I went that day and OH MY! It helped that very day! I went back several times the following weeks and now I'm down to monthly visits. She's also been helping with my popping jaw which my dentist and orthodontist said couldn't be fixed without surgery, so that's a bonus! (The right side of my jaw started popping about 2 years ago just out of the blue, it was slightly painful but more annoying and now the chiropractor's helped minimize the popping and discomfort).

I stopped at KFC to get DH dinner since I had my mom's monthly church dinner to go to. Got home, went out to Ormond for the dinner, and got back home around 7:15. The first Monday of the month is Dog Night at Ritter's our local ice cream shop, so Rufus and I went over there for his ice cream and some socializing. There weren't many dogs there at all, so we only stayed about 30 minutes and came home. Then it was relax time finally! Or so I thought. Prison Break was back on last night at 9pm and I get so nervous watching that show. It's been that way since the beginning of that series, but I love watching it anyway.

So that gets us caught up for the month of November. I still can't believe it's November already!

Today's election day. We'll go vote at our library after work. And tomorrow our country will be aimed in a new direction and that's all I'm going to say about that.