Flower Photos

As part of my effort to use our camera more, I'm going to post at least a photo a week taken with it. Usually, I get lazy and just snap photos with the point-and-shoot for this blog. Because it's small. And handy.

So this will be my motivation (I hope) to use the D-SLR more and improve my photography skills.

This week's photos were taken in our back yard. I haven't done any post processing, but I'd like to see it in B&W.

1/80 at f/3.2,  ISO 100, 50 mm

1/80 sec at f/3.2,  ISO 100, 50 mm

Chester Won!

As my mom said, "I see competition was overwhelming for the little guy but he pulled out the winning vote." Okay, so he was only competing against one other dog, but he still won!

Thank you everyone for voting!

Little Chester will have his photo in the Rescue Dogs of the Twin Cities book representing Midwest Pug Rescue - Minnesota Division.

More on the book here

Weekend Recap: Shopping & lots of TV

Not much to recap here. We had a pretty low key weekend.

We had plans to go shopping on Friday night, but I had a headache and felt pretty terrible. My medicine finally took the edge off, so we were able to watch some shows. As in 5 episodes in a row of Homeland. In short, it's about the CIA, terrorism and sleeper cells. We just started it on Thursday night and finished it up on Saturday. Yeah, we're cool. It was surprisingly REALLY good though.

Saturday ended up being our shopping day. We got some cheap wine/champagne/beer at Trader Joe's along with a few other items. They have really good prices on odd things such as gnocchi and artichoke hearts. At our next stop, Adam got a few pairs of nice dress shoes for work and I even found a new pair of ballet flat type shoes. I live in ballet flats. Lastly, we spent at least an hour at H&M. Oh how I love H&M. Adam found some pants and dress shirts. And I got some random shirts. Good times.

Sunday was the big Fantasy Baseball Draft at our house. Adam made Jucy Lucy's, and I hung out upstairs most of the day going through stuff.

Later, we went on a walk and I brought the Cannon along. I really need to dust that thing off and get back into using it. Nothing relaxes me more.

"Hurry and catch up, mom!"

Oh yeah, and don't forget the 2 hour season premiere of Mad Men! So glad it's back on!

So did anyone go see The Hunger Games over the weekend? I'm hoping to go next weekend. I think I have Adam almost convinced.

Foodie Friday: Bucatini Carbonara

It may look less than delicious, but it was yum. Adam usually hates carbonara and complains relentlessly when I tell him it's on the menu. It's taken a lot of tries and adjustments to the recipe, but I think the use of lots of bacon (6 slices cut up) and bucatini (like spaghetti but hollow inside) may have converted him!

Have I mentioned lately how much I LOVE our butcher block kitchen counters?

Vote for Chester!

Please vote for the little guy! He's #108 under Midwest Pug Rescue

http://www.rovernightnetwork.com/photocontestvoting

Voting Form
 One vote per person/e-mail address

If he won, he would get this photo in the Rescue Dogs of the Twin Cities book

Thank you!

In other Chester news, this awesome spring weather has meant an increase in the "sniffing stops" on our walks and the "salad bar" consumption AKA grass eating. He's such a little stinker! But oh how we love the little guy.

Weekend Recap: The Dells!

Last weekend was my eagerly anticipated break in the Dells with my fam.

Adam's parents picked up Chester on Thursday night after we all went to dinner at Black Sheep (yum). It was so nice of them to watch him for a long weekend, especially when they were getting ready to go on a trip. We never want to have to board Chester. It means a lot to have family that loves him and is able to watch him when we go out of town. But, with him gone, packing was really quick (no puppy pulling stuff out of our bags) and quiet. We missed the little guy, and we hadn't even left yet!

We hit the road at 3:30 on Friday afternoon. After a short stop for dinner, we arrived at Chula Vista at about 6:45. It was perfect timing because my fam was still in the lobby checking in. The hotel is a bit out of the dells, so it kind of feels like it's in the middle of nowhere. It's pretty nice though.

The Snore Free Zone - room we shared with Stine

 We checked out the pool area, but only felt like relaxing in the hot tub just outside our room.

View from our room/balcony

 Later, we congregated in one of the rooms and just talked.

Adam's promotion cookie cake from Aunt Carey

 On Saturday, Adam and I went shopping at the Tanger Outlet Mall - something we do every year. Adam got some new work clothes, and I got a few things too.

Back at the hotel, we had lunch with my dad, Tim and Alex. Then we relaxed in the room for a few hours; Adam napped and I read my book. I was getting antsy to get down to the pool area, so off we went. Unfortunately, the water park was packed. I hated that you had to wait in line to get a tube (with a extra long wait for a double tube), carry it up to the slides, and then wait in line some more. The best tube slide by far was the toilet bowl one, but we only went on it once that day.

It was so nice out that on our way back to the room, we went and enjoyed the outdoor hot tub by our rooms. That night, we relaxed in the room and ordered pizza. Before bed, Adam and I went on a nice long walk along the river walk.

Sunday, we slept in, packed quickly (who knew check-out was at 10:30?!), checked out, and then went down to the water park for the day. It wasn't quite as crowded, which was nice. The later we were there, the less crowded it got. But it was still annoying to wait in line twice for the waterslides. The layout just didn't seem that thought out - like they were trying to cram too much stuff into a small area.

We got going around 2:30, dropped Caroline off at school, and then picked up the baby guy. Sad to say, we may have been more excited to see him than he was to see us. Don't get me wrong, he was pretty excited, but we had been anticipating it almost the whole drive! It was nice to be home pretty early and to be all unpacked in time to see The Walking Dead season finale. Intense.

It was kind of a shame that it was such a gorgeous weekend and we spent most of it inside. But who would have thought it would have been this warm in mid-March!? Oh well, there will be plenty of nice weekends ahead and it was a fun time with the family. I always like checking out new water parks too.

A few kitchen details

Just a few little kitchen details to share. Yes, there are a few more things we need to do before we can declare it completely done and worthy of taking before and after shots. After this weekend, we'll have some time to finish it up. I'm hoping by April? Can you tell we've gotten lazy about it?

First, my awesome bar and S hooks from Ikea. The layout of utensils is a bit of a work in progress, but I'm loving getting that old utensil caddy off the counter. Now there's more room for Chester's little food container. And it's not cluttered. I love that part.
Sadly, most of our stainless steel utensils don't have hooks on the top of them. They would look so pretty...

(Why yes, I need to do some touch up painting. That little grey spot was my paint sample when I thought I would be repainting the kicthen. The gross brown is what color our kitchen was before we moved in. Ish.)

Next is the little sponge holder I picked up at Ikea. Undermount sinks are tricky - there's no spot to hold your sponge!

 

 Last is the lovely "new kitchen" gift from Curt and Robin. Aren't the colors perfect? So pretty!

That is all

Happy (Early) Spring

It feels like spring! And at the Dang's, we're pretty excited about it!

I'M SO. EXCITED. FOR SPRING!

I can't believe how nice out it's been. On our nightly walk last evening, Chester and I saw TONS of people out and enjoying the nice weather. Usually we don't see anyone.

This also means that Nemesis has been outside in it's yard a lot. For those of you that don't know, Chester and I have named a few dogs we often see on our walks. First, there's his girlfriend, a tiny little blackish gray furball that barks at him non-stop from her fenced in yard as we pass. Surprisingly, Chester doesn't bark back. I think it's because he loves her. He always runs up her front steps and sniffs at the fence as she barks.

Then, there's Nemesis. Nemesis is a bulldog type that is often outside, never with supervision and never with a leash. Usually, he/she stays in it's yard, but lately it has not. It runs down the yard, crosses the street and comes onto the sidewalk as we walk by. This is not a friendly dog. It's barking and snarling as it comes at us. The past few times, I've had to shout at it to get away and pick up Chester so he doesn't get attacked. A few times, I've thought that I was going to get bitten in the process. Chester of course freaks out and is frantically trying to get down while barking like a maniac.

We pretty much hate Nemesis. And now, whenever we walk by that area, Chester gets tense. But we're stubborn, and don't want it to affect our walk routine. Hopefully the people that live there get a clue.

Weekend Recap: Birthday Party, Shower & Spring

Updated with photos of Adam fishing.

As usual, we had a busy weekend down at my parent's house.

We drove back Friday afternoon after work. Back at my parent's house, we had a nice meal of fish, shrimp, asparagus and coleslaw with my mom and dad. Luckily, Stine was gone because she hates fish and all fish odors.

Saturday, the guys went fishing. It was super windy and they didn't have the best luck. But they enjoyed getting out in "their" new fishing boat.

Mom, Stine and I went to the Minnesota Marine Art Museum in Winona. It was an interesting place, especially for such a small town. They even had a few Monet's and a Renoir among other notable Impressionists. Stine and I got sicking of seeing so many paintings of boats, ships and sailboats though. I think my favorite part was the National Geographic Simply Beautiful photography exhibit. I think even Adam, the art museum hater, would have enjoyed that part.

Check out it's website - http://www.minnesotamarineart.org/
It's worth an hour or two if you're in the area.

 That evening was my little cousin Joey's birthday party. It was fun to get together and see everyone on my mom's side of the family.

Cocoa found a new friend

 I loved his gold mine ice cream cake that they put together. It was so clever and detailed!

There may or may not have been some frosting snitches

Sunday was my cousin Lanette's baby shower, which was the reason we came down for the weekend. It was nice to visit with all the ladies on my dad's side of the fam.

And the brunch food was delicious! There were even "Faux Mimosas" - orange juice & Canada Dry

Once again, the guys fished all day. It was beautiful out and the fish were actually biting.

Back at my parent's, we got packed up and enjoyed the beautiful day. There was even a little surprise we discovered in the yard when taking Chester out-

Daffodils blooming!

"Maybe, if I sit good, I'll get a treat!"

My new favorite photo of the little guy

We didn't get back home until 8:30, which was a little rough. There wasn't much time to relax at home after unloading the car, taking Chester for a walk and unpacking. Definitely a fun weekend though, even if it was a little exhausting.

London, here we come!

We're going to London. We're going to Paris. We're going to Dublin. Oh and also the Cliffs of Moher and maybe Galway.

That's right, it's official. I've been talking about this for months, but I bought our tickets last night. Okay, so it's 6 months away, but I'm REALLY EXCITED. Yes, that deserves all caps.


So we'll be doing a little of this...

 And this...

Please excuse my poor photoshopping skillz, I didn't have much time, but I just couldn't resist.

I CAN. NOT. WAIT to return to London, my favorite city ever, and to experience it with Adam. This is his first (of many) trips to Europe. Paris will be so romantic with my hubs. And while I've been to Ireland briefly (Cork area for a weekend), Dublin will be new to me. I talked Adam into spending an extra night in Ireland, so I'm hoping to get out of the city for one night and head over to the Galway/Cliffs of Moher area. 

We'll be spending 4 nights in London, then taking the EuroStar to Paris for 3 nights. From Paris, we will fly to Dublin and spend 4 nights in Ireland before flying home from Dublin.

I've been watching airfare for a while now, and I just don't see it going down much (if at all). We're doing a multi-city itinerary which is a bit more expensive. And we wanted a really specific flight there - direct flight out of MSP at 9:45 PM on Thursday night. We'll arrive in London around noon which is perfect. I love red eyes for traveling abroad. That way you don't waste a day in the air; you (hopefully) sleep through it. It worked for me when I last went to London to study abroad and this time I'll have Adam to snuggle against.

We'll be leaving out of Dublin with a 3 hour layover at ATL. I considered a 1.5 hour layover at JFK, but that made me really nervous. That's not much time for an international to domestic flight. I'd rather be safe with a few extra hours to kill than stressing out because we cut it close.

So yes, in case you can't tell, I'm super excited. Adam's super excited. Chester? Not so excited (that is if he actually knew what was going on)

For those keeping track, we have lots of vacations planned this year.
- Dells in March
- Vegas for Adam in April
- Milwaukee in May
- Bayfield/Madeline Island in July
- Boston in August
- London/Paris/Dublin in September

I live to travel and plan vacations...

Weekend Recap: Fogo & Bowling

Sorry for the weekend update delay - sometimes I just don't feel like blogging.

First- the kitchen
For all intents and purposes, the kitchen is done. It's not actually done as there are a number of little projects to do and I'm not ready to post the "after" pics. But I'm done updating and counting how many days it's been since we started. We've been working on it sporadically and it's functional now. I'll post more when we finally finish everything.

Day a million (Saturday)
1. Wipe/scrape off more grout haze
2. Put on first coat of grout sealer
3. Decide original application method just wasn't cutting it (Q-tip)
4. Switch to applying with a paper towel
5. Apply second coat of grout sealer
6. Wipe off any excess sealer

Next - the weekend
We had a pretty fun weekend. We grilled at home one night and watched a movie - Hugo. It was okay. The cinematography was beautiful (what it won an award for) and I loved that it took place in Paris. However, there were a lot of dogs and dogs barking in the movie, which definitely impacted our ability to enjoy it. Chester was constantly jumping off the couch and freaking out at the tv. He really needs to get over this phobia/aggression. I just don't know how to help him with it?

The other night we went to Fogo de Chao in downtown Minneapolis as part of Restaurant Week. It was just okay. We've been wanting to go for a while, and would discuss going every time we passed it on the way to a Twins game.

The service was excellent (minus the dessert issue) despite the fact that it was PACKED. The place is huge though. And the food was just okay. The premise of it is these chefs walk around with meat on sticks which they cut off for you if you want some. A lot of it was over done or not very warm. I'm not much of a carnivore myself, so the salad bar was probably my favorite part with all the gourmet cheeses. But I was surprised that Adam didn't love it. He tried almost every meat item though (like 14?). I don't know, it just did not seem worth it and you could definitely tell it was a chain. Maybe I'm a food snob, but I was not impressed.

And then there was the dessert issue. When we were done, a different server asked us as he was clearing our plates, "Did you save room for dessert?" Thinking it was like any other restaurant that asks you that to determine if they should bring out the dessert menu, we said no. At no point did he mention that hey, dessert is included with your meal. UGH! I paid for dessert that I didn't even get. And it was like a selection of gourmet desserts too. I didn't figure it out until I got home and looked at the menu online and saw it was included. I was kind of wondering when we were there because so many people had these awesome looking desserts, but I figured the waiter would have said something. He knew we had never been there before. I mean, come on, really? I'm still fuming!!! Can you tell? I have no desire to ever go back.

On Sunday, we had a family day with Adam's dad's side. We met at a bowling alley for a few hours. Now, I wasn't expecting to have much fun after my bowling fail the previous week. But surprisingly, I had a great time. Deep fried pickles may have helped. Oh, and the fact that after the first game, my bowling skills dramatically improved. I even had 2 (almost 3) strikes in a row! Unheard of for me. It was rather funny to go from a score of 33 in the first game (oh yes, it was gutter ball city), to over 100 in the 3rd game. We played 3.5 games in 2 hours.

Adam won! And I brought up the rear

After bowling, we briefly stopped by Adam's parent's house. There they gave us a lovely "new kitchen" gift. I can't wait to use it. I'll have to post photos.

I hate caulking

I'm super bored by posting about the kitchen and I'm sure you're so over reading about it. So this will be brief. Plus, we haven't done much, and what we have done has been kind of fail.

I don't have many photos from this because this step annoyed me and there wasn't much to see anyway.

Day 31 (Monday AKA grouting FAIL day)
1.  Work on removing grout haze

2. Put the light switch covers back on

3. Apply grout caulk where the counter and backsplash meet and a few other spots

4. Use finger to go along caulk line to smooth it out (my job)

4. Run out of grout caulk

Day 32 (Tuesday AKA grouting FAIL discovery day)
1. Go to HD to buy more grout caulk and some wood to make the arch

2. Discover grout caulk fail when removing painters tape (tape had been put down before we tiled so it was far under the tiles and took most of the caulk off with it once removed instead of leaving a nice smooth line)

3. Scrape off all grout caulk along the counter

4. Decide to do a practice area

5. Place tape on the counter to the left of the stove

6. Apply grout caulk, use finger to smooth

7. Caulk other areas like under the window

8. Remove tape on counter after 20 minutes, admire the nice straight line

Day 33 (Wednesday - Grouting FAIL fixing day)
1. Tape the rest of the counters

2. Apply grout caulk

3. Smooth with finger

4. Remove tape and admire

I'm so glad to be done with the stupid caulking

This caulking process was probably one of my least favorite parts. Probably because we had to do it twice and that ticked me off. And because we did it three different nights when it should have all been done in one. I have no patience.