tick tock tick tock

t-minus 4 days, 2 hours until time to leave for vacation. no, i'm not counting down or anything.

ps. convince my wife that i have a decent reason to take the laptop. no wifi in the vacation condo, but there are 4 panera breads (free wifi) within 10 miles.

XL

so this weekend, while purchasing a bunch of goodies for our upcoming vacation, i bit the bullet and bought some XL drawz and undershirts at target along with a few nice XL shirts and one size larger shorts at old navy. i guess i had forgotten clothes were supposed to be comfortable! i've stuck with size L shirts for a long long time because i guess there was some style about having shirts a tad tighter and shorts a bit baggier. but forget that, i'm older now. i'm still holding out on a minivan or a camry until i'm 30, but i figure i can wear clothes that fit right.

you see, after gaining the freshman 15 from drinking too many "cokes" (in the southern sense of the word - i think it was "lime up!" or some cheap nonsense) and eating too much food from the grill, i lost it all or more by the time the wedding rolled around thanks to a wonderfully regular regimen of working out with jason, missy, and michael. at some point after that, i gained the marriage 30 ... or so... though part of that was the husband of a pregnant woman syndrome (see "couvade" mentioned in a blog post about 2 and a half years ago). for now, i've come to the realization that though it'd be nice and healthy to exercise regularly, i don't care enough to do it (that doesn't include walking which i do find particularly enjoyable) and therefore i'm enjoying my comfortably-fitting clothes.

not sure what happened last week

i guess i was overproductive on posting the week before and neglected it last week. it's like batting average and i must be a streaky poster.

we took jake to see cars on saturday - his first movie since he was 6 months or less and not really talking / googoogahgah'ing. he almost made it, but got restless with 10-15 minutes to go so lindsay walked with him a bit out in the hallway and then watched the end from the hall beside the stadium seating. the movie was great and the graphics seemed yet another step up in a long line of great movies.

church was really good on sunday as a new worship leader led the music time and the sermon was on one of my fave topics - holiness via grace, not legalism.

only a week and a half until we head to the beach!

happy father's day!!

to my own father and to all fathers out there!

rapper jake

lindsay suggested i share this cute picture of vanilla ice jake. it's from 2 months ago, but still cute.

rosemary burgers

continuing on the "i just got some fresh herbs so lets look for fun ways to use them" theme, i went to allrecipes.com on jen's recommendation and i searched for recipes that included rosemary and ground beef (since we had some). i found a couple of recipes for rosemary burgers and since i've wanted to patty out and make my own burgers for a while, i decided to give it a shot. i defrosted the ground beef, broke it up in a bowl, added garlic salt, a bit more regular salt, pepper, chili powder (like i said yesterday, it really takes quite a bit for it to do something), and the washed and chopped fresh rosemary. i mixed it up and made 3 patties - small, medium, and large. one recipe said to tuck a tablespoon of butter in the patties and i did, but not that much butter. the meat was already pretty fatty so they didn't have any trouble staying juicy. i tried to cook them pretty low so they would get done throughout (my large one was pretty thick) and they ended up being quite tasty alongside some tater tots. no picture since it just looked like a regular burger :-)

a writing from this past semester

here is the course paper for my one-hour class this past spring entitled 'praying all ways' that took me to florida twice. the course was great and really instilled a foundational appreciation for the importance of prayer in our personal and communal lives. the course paper details the project of a prayer altar (pictured below) i did for the course.

rosemary chicken and oregano smashed potatoes

while in knoxville this past weekend, i noticed an interesting new piece of landscaping outside my in-laws' house. right before we left, we found out it was an enormous herb garden so my father-in-law snipped me off a bunch of rosemary and - my favorite as of late - oregano.

i got lindsay to pick up some chicken on the way home and i put it in the skillet on medium with evoo while i boiled two potatoes that i'd cubed. to the chicken, i added (kosher) salt, fresh ground black pepper, and a couple of dashes of chili powder (it really takes a lot for it to do anything); then, after it had been going for a little while, i added 4 cloves of chopped garlic and about 4 medium length sprigs of rosemary (washed and chopped). it ended up not being enough rosemary as i wanted to really be able to taste it. the chicken was delicious but mainly because of the oil, garlic and other spices.

after the potatoes were tender (fork test), i drained them, put them back in the pan and added (kosher) salt, fresh ground black pepper, and half of a stick of butter. at this point, i've got to make it clear that lindsay was hovering and giving tips and such so don't think this is just me. i was kind of making it up as i went along though. so anyways, i start mixing the potatoes a bit, trying to leave them as chunky as possible and i exclaim: "i need some kind of a creamy base!" next thing i know, lindsay has whipped out a small (4 oz.?) container of sour cream and more butter (which it needed as well). at the same time, i added two long sprigs of oregano (washed and chopped) which proved to be just the right amount.

lindsay made some cole slaw to round out the meal with a colorful veggie and the whole thing was pretty good. the herbs were tasty and spiced up what would otherwise be a pretty ordinary meal. that being said, it's not like it was that extravagant either.

edit: i meant to throw a hat tip to my good friend jen and i guess rachael ray and the food network. reading and watching them has ingrained some cooking basics in me.

back to work

a great weekend out of town visiting family can also make for a quick weekend. but it was worth it. we had an especially good time at the wedding of a high school friend of lindsay's and it was really nice to hang out with friends while at the wedding.

i had a nice surprise welcome me home - my books were already here. yippee! not that i can do much but flip through them - there are others queued in front of them. I've already shelved some of them even.

What are you currently reading?

off to knox

dad had a good stay and enjoyed his day with jake. he went around and met with the principals of the local elementary schools and liked what he was for the most part. he also looked at some houses while he was here and found a couple that he really liked in our neighborhood. now if the school board office would just send him a job offer letter (usually doesn't happen until later in the summer).

we're getting ready to drive down to knoxville for the weekend and specifically to go to the wedding of one of lindsay's high school friends tmrw evening. it should be good to get away and visit the family, but it always seems to go so fast. maybe because it's only about 48 hours including driving.

i'm hoping lindsay will drive some this evening because i've started ball four and it's pretty good (and funny).