Nova

I heard an interesting story the other day. When Chevrolet tried to sell their car, the Nova, in Latin America, it did very poorly. Can you guess why?

Irrigation System, How Do I Love Thee

MTH's parents came to visit this past weekend. The arrived around noon on Friday. By the time I came home at 4pm, they had installed an irrigation system in our front yard! It's so great. We now don't have to worry about remembering to water. There's a timer and it automatically comes on in the morning and waters all of our nice plants. Here's some pictures of the system that they installed in the back yard on Saturday.

There's the sprayer

There's one of our beautiful plants

Today is a Fun Day

Today is the quarterly Work Fun Day. We're going to Busch Gardens in Williamsburg. I haven't been to an amusement park in a few years so it actually should be fun. I'll give an update later today on the activities of the day. And, maybe I'll post about other things!

Our Front Yard

MTH, SM (my sister) and I planted a few flowers and ornamental plants in the front yard on Cinco de Mayo. Here's some pictures:







I will also post several pictures throughout the spring and summer to show its progress. Hopefully that progress will be a good progress and not a lot of weeds!!

The plants are:
geraniums, ornamental variegated leaf thing (don't remember the name), lily turf grass, impatiens and begonias. We also fertilized the azaleas. Hopefully they'll show their appreciation!

I also planted an herb garden in the backyard. The herbs are: rosemary, lavender, oregano and thyme. I'll have my very own fresh herbes de Provence.

I've been tagged....

What is tagging you might ask? Apparently a sort of '"get to know you'" game that bloggers play.

The Rules:
• Start with 7 random facts/habits about yourself
• People who are tagged have to write their 7 things on their blog
• Then choose another 7 people to get tagged and list their names
• Don’t forget to leave them a comment to tell them they have been tagged

Seven Random things about myself:
(1) I worked at McDonald's.
(2) I don't have a middle name.
(3) I know how to clog.
(4) I call a shopping cart a "buggy".
(5) I know how to make bread from scratch.
(6) I've now been to Las Vegas 4 times in 3 years (I think I'm done)
(7) I think I'm ready to move again.

Loud took all of the blogs I know so I had to tag mostly random bloggers:
http://kitchenmusings.typepad.com/
http://humdrum-girl.blogspot.com/
http://rosy-and-grey.blogspot.com/
http://awkwardthingsisaytogirls.com/
http://chewyyyy.blogspot.com/
http://scottpharr.blogspot.com/
http://valereelynn.blogspot.com/

SM's Visit

My sister came to visit the weekend before MAK. I'll be posting some of our handiwork soon. She helped us to plant flowers in the front yard. It looks so much better. We also enjoyed cooking out and eating out. She had to leave one day early because of a job interview. We're keeping our fingers crossed (no word yet).

Grilled Pizzas (again)

I know that I’ve talked about grilled pizzas in the past. I had my team over this past Tuesday for dinner. I decided that grilled pizzas would be fun since each person can make it how they want. In Alexandria, I could buy pizza dough at Trader Joe’s or at Whole Foods. In Richmond, none of the grocery stores seem to have pizza dough. So, I had to go to Plan B – call a pizzeria. That was a lucky break. The pizza crust was the best we’ve ever had. It made the pizzas that much better. I’ll be buying it from a pizzeria from now on! 2.718 – Have you tried grilling pizzas yet?

Everyone – have you grilled something on the grill that at first seemed weird but turned out very good? I love trying to find new things to grill that you wouldn’t expect to be good. My new things for this year are bananas and strawberries.

Weekend with MAK

I had a great weekend with MAK. It was 5/11-5/13. She got in around midnight on 5/11 and we went to sleep around 1am. Impressively, we got up at 7am and went for a 3 mile run in the neighborhood. Then, we had a great breakfast of Greek yogurt, maple almond granola, toast with strawberry preserves and peanut butter and coffee. MAK enjoyed it so much we had it again on Sunday morning. We then headed to the mall to shop for a little while. When we came back, we had a lunch of gourmet cheeses, bakery bread and champagne. Then, we went for a walk around the neighborhood. Due to the time difference, MAK did take a nap for a little while but not for as long as I expected. We had dinner at a place called Bacchus. Then, on Sunday, we went for another run, had the same breakfast and then walked around Carytown. Then, she left to go home. It was a whirlwind trip but a lot of fun! I’ll see her again in August for her bachelorette party at her Mom’s.

Scenes from Flying

I am flying to Las Vegas today. Since we live in Richmond, unless I’m flying somewhere close by, I have to connect. For this flight, I connected through Dallas-Forth Worth. During that layover, I saw a group of men all dressed the same. That in itself is not interesting. The interesting part is that they each had on green shorts, yellow socks and blue blazers. I have no idea why. I should have stopped one of them to find out. Next, I was sitting in my gate area waiting on the flight to board. A man walked out of the bbq place across from our gate – he looked just like Santa Claus – white beard and belly that shakes like a bowl full of jelly. Now, I’m on the plane to Vegas. The woman beside has decided one of two things: 1) She’s not actually on a plane but actually in her shower or 2) We all WANT to hear her sing along with her headphones. She has now bought a snack so that should keep her from singing for a while. Eating does not stop her from singing. The thing is, I actually have on headphones and can still hear her. I have to say, this is the only time I don’t like being around people.

My Upcoming Posts

It’s been a while since I posted (again). I’m on the plane to Vegas right now so I decided to get my computer out and write my posts in Word. I’ll post them all at the same time later.

Cookout Update

We ended up having beef kebabs as my British friend (Britgirl, from now on) could not find any lamb that she liked. For some reason the Halloumi melted. One of Halloumi's interesting properties (normally) is that it doesn't melt when heated. Thus, it's ability to be grilled. Anyway, we were able to salvage a few pieces so people got to try it.

I also made some "souvlaki" chicken. It turned out nicely. It was just a marinade of balsamic vinegar, lemon juice and pepper.

The grilled banana splits were a hit! I grilled some strawberries this weekend again because I enjoyed the grilled fruit so much last weekend.