I'm Employed!

I took time out of my busy schedule "playing house" to "play dress-up" and bring you this important announcement: I got a job!

I start this upcoming Tuesday at Reynolds & Reynolds as a web designer. The company has about 6,000 employees and is headquartered out of Dayton, Ohio. They do support services for car dealerships all over the U.S. - anything from customer service outsourcing, to inventory tracking software, to key tracking, to making websites. That's where I come in. I'll be the 9th person hired to the team that handles around 6k websites for 4k clients! It's a tall order but I'm really excited! It fits in perfectly with my web development and marketing background. Oh, and the benefits are awesome!

The Game Room

While the rest of the house slowly percolates into a form that is nigh livable, I took the initiative to at least organize the important stuff...you know - the games. The first thought that will pass through your mind as you look on at these pictures will probably be something like "whoa, that kid has a lot of friggin' games." This most likely will be followed by questions like "where the heck do you even get those?" or "why would anyone need so many?" I assure you those questions have good and reasonable answers.

I'll let you know them when I think of them...

Analog (Crokinole board on right):



Digital (Xbox, 360, Wii, DS):



(Not pictured: Guitar Hero controllers (3), Virtual Boy collection, Neo Geo Pocket collection, SNES collection, N64 collection, Dreamcast collection, PS1 collection...which is around 6 consoles and 100 additional video games)

Misadventures in Cooking, Part I

I was originally thinking of calling this section “The art of preparing edible substrate for human consumption” but it didn’t have the right ring to it. Anyway, this is a running series I have planned where I’ll explore the art of cooking thanks to the host of tools generously donated by the foundation of Mac and my Grandma.

Before I got a literal trunk-load of cooking utensils, I relied on one pan, one knife, and two seasonings (Great American Land & Cattle, and Cavender’s All-Purpose Greek). Which is to say, our food wasn’t bad per se…just a tad - simple. The only dish of mention made before Denise arrived with our gifts was a failure-turned-delectable risotto (thanks to a call to Pop).

Post the one-pan, one-knife era, we went for something a smidge more complicated. The American Test Kitchen Cookbook (also given to us by Mac and Grandma) had a pretty easy and tasty sounding recipe for brined pork with a garlic-hoisin sauce. Everything went mostly to plan, but I cooked the pork a little too long so once I took it off the burner, the residual heat made it cook until it was a bit tougher than I would have liked. I probably should also remember to buy thicker cuts of rib chop next time as well… The sauce could have used some tweaking. Six minced cloves of garlic made it a bit too, well, garlic-ee. The paired sweetness of the hoisin with the pork was a nice combo, but it could be a bit more subtle. As to ideas for an inert ingredient to draw down the punch, I’m all ears.

If anyone wants to post suggestions for my next challenge, I’ll also be happy to field those.

Engagement Picture Day!

Simon's Aunt Denise was passing through College Station and luckily had the time to stop by with a trunk full of goodies from Grandma and Grandpa Mac. They were nice enough to completely furnish our kitchen with every cooking utensil we could possibly need. I guess we sounded pretty pathetic cooking meals with only one skillet and a set of butter knives! It was like Chistmas in the middle of the summer when she got here! Now if only we knew how to use all of it...

While she was in town Denise took us out for a day of photography. We finally have some professional engagment pictures to share. She did an excellent job despite our laughable efforts to be models. The pictures are beautiful! Check out the full album here.

....still no plans set for the wedding though...

Doggies!

I thought I would post a few pics of the dogs for those who haven't been graced with their stinky, obnoxious - though undeniably cute - presence.

Here's Bogart the pug (4 years):

     

And Moki the plott hound mix (1 year):

     

Moving Day(s)!

As if we hadn't done enough moving in the last four years between Simon's four houses and my moving back and forth from college, here came the boxes yet again! For the first time in six years we will actually be in the same zip code for more than a few months out of the year! We found a nice little duplex with a yard for the dogs not too far from campus....did I mention little? My dad was nice enough to pay for the U-haul to get all of Simon's stuff the 180 miles to College Station. And now after a month of unpacking and organizing it finally looks like someone lives here!

Here's the living room, kitchen, and back yard pre-move-in:

   

Here's Simon NOT enjoying the move...

 

And here's our stuff everywhere after Day 2...



Stay tuned for suitable living conditions...

Simon and I are engaged!!

We all went down to Port Aransas for Memorial Day with several other families when it happened. May 24th was the 6 year anniversary of our first date and we were going to go walk along the beach at night like we usually do to look for shells under the stars. As we were walking on our way to meet the rest of my family we came upon an arc of lit tiki torches with no one around. Being predictably curious as I am, I went to investigate why someone would light a half circle of torches and just leave them on the beach. As I got closer I noticed roses and blinking lights in the sand. It took me a few good seconds to be able to read what the lights said. They spelled out "Marry Me"!

 

I spun around and Simon was down on one knee waiting for me, ring in hand. And he proposed to me under the stars by the surf with my family looking on, crying and taking pictures. Obviously I said YES! The ring is absolutely gorgeous! We're in the process of deciding dates and details so keep checking back for plans...

We are Live!

Alright, things are up and running. We'll be populating the blog with the most important announcements right away and then start adding regular weekly posts as time progresses (probably every Wednesday, but don't hold me to it).

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Please pardon our dust for the next week or so as I wrestle with the template to shoe-in all the content we want added... Hey, I said I was a web designer, but I never said I was an especially good one...