The ground was thirsty...

It hadn't rained here in a long time. The last time precipitation touched the ground might have been during the great South Central Texas Snow Day. But, that all changed today when it rained. Which means our pool probably won't get cleaned. Which means Justin will have to clean it. But I digress into #firstworldproblems.

This is a pic of what it looked like from our office before the rain started.  The clouds are cool and at the same time a little freaky. 

Here's a pic of when the rain started.  The sky isn't as impressive looking, but it's still a little crazy. 

 

Hopefully this rain is recharging the Edwards Aquifer. Which will help everyone. And make everyone feel better because they know we have water.  Hopefully this rain will stop before the ground is totally saturated and flooding starts. We flood here pretty easily.  I don't know all the science behind it, but it seems like the ground just doesn't know what to do with all the water. 

At any rate, cheers to the rain and all those who danced for its arrival!

Red hot...

This one is about the color red. The life it breathes into some old folding chairs. The fact that they now look hot(t- added for those who like super slang).

We inherited some chairs from hosting some poker parties at our place and they found an unfriendly home on our back porch. This is one of them. 

No way would this tush touch that seat.

This is not the worst of them. I am too ashamed of those to post pics.

This is how this baby looks with a shiny, happy coating of pocket book friendly (read found on sale!) red Rustoleum spray paint.  

I'd sit on that!

We have 4 or 5 chairs.  I completed 2.5 of them.  We greatly underestimated the amount of paint needed to complete the job. Justin bought more today on his lunch break, but sadly it was no longer on sale.

Sidenote: Justin commented on my ability to make sure I didn't miss the ground. Well, when we go to make a pretty little garden back there, all that stuff will get covered up anyway. You might be asking yourself when you'll be able to pick up fresh produce from the Barbour market.  We'll talk later. Much later. 

It's getting hot in here...

So last night after busting our butts in the back and front yard, after we both put in full days at work and I did the HEB (grocery store) run and Justin ran by Lowe's for the yard goodies, we finally were ready to cook dinner at about 8:50 p.m.

The menu:

1. Oven Roasted Cauliflower and Brussel Sprout drizzled with Olive Oil and Salt and Pepper

2. Boiled Fingerling Potatoes

3. Little 5 oz bacon wrapped HEB tenderloins

While everything was bubbling/sizzling away, I was going to do my Spanish Rosetta Stone that my mom got me as an early birthday present.  (I knew before, but reiterated my awesome language skills such as- La mujer nada. Translation: The woman swims.)

I got the veggies in the oven and the the water on to boil and am cleaning the potatoes when Justin came into the kitchen and noticed smoke pouring from the 1984 oven. I looked in the little 1984 glass window of the little 1984 oven and noticed flames! 

(Please excuse the fact that there are no pictures of our actual experience as we were working to put out said 1984 oven fire.) 

Photo from: http://cucinadivina.blogspot.com/2010/11/fire-in-hole.html

Somehow this blogger kept her stuff together and snapped a pic, whereas Justin was trying to fan it out while we, both postgrad educated people, were trying to figure out if corn starch or baking powder could be thrown on the baby, yet still totally terrifying, flames.   Our fire looked similar to this but was mostly isolated to the front right corner. 

Turns out when you are cooking with olive oil and heat, you should have a lip on the baking sheet to contain said natural goodness and prevent losing all of your possessions.  Lesson learned and new baking sheets with lips are to be purchased. 

We finished off the veggies in our counter-top convection oven in two batches in little round cake tins that fit in there. Justin showered, and then finished the meat while I cleaned up. 

So when did I master my basic Spanish sentences?  After we ate dinner from about 10:45 pm until 11:30 pm I played worked diligently with Rosetta Stone.  I think the full stomach helped my concentration.  

Springtime in Paris- Day 2...

Paris- day two (April 2, 2011) we woke up, got dressed and headed out the door to catch the metro to the closest station at which we would be able to catch the train to Versailles. At the station we followed at the signs and got the section where we could buy the tickets. After some fumbling around with the machine because we didn't have cash, and it didn't take our credit cards because they don't have some ubiquitous smart chip that European card have, we got smart and realized someone was sitting in the booth and could in fact sell us tickets using our non-smart chip card. (Note: I have no idea if the chip is smart or not, but the machine didn't like our cards cause they were lacking the chip.)

We got through the turnstiles and realized we had about 20 minutes until the next train which meant we had time to get a bite to eat (a sandwich) and grab some water (I was definitely still dehydrated.)

Metro Stand Macaroons!

Since the train ride was to take 30 minutes and I was relieved of my navigating duties, once again with a full belly, I went to sleep.  Justin woke me up as we approached the station so I could try to rub the sleep lines off my face.

The palace in the background.

The palace, closer but still, in the background.

The gates between the courtyard and the palace.

The day was gorgeous, no jackets needed, and we walked up a street that was a little shadier than the main avenue to the palace. Once there we were able to hop straight into line and skip the ticket purchasing since entry was covered by the museum pass.

Wouldn't you know it we had a Rick Steve's audio tour to cover this awe inspiring place in history.  We were a little thrown off course in the beginning because there were so many people around the entry, but once we got into the palace and started going from room to room, things were a little smoother and the tour was pretty accurate. (Audio tour after audio tour, Rick will remind you of the fact that some things may have moved and some things have changed/moved). One of the things that seemed most interesting to me was that you go through the room where Marie Antoinette was holed up and hiding out, trying to wait out fate and then you walk into the next room and like a shrine to Napoleon with a copy of the painting of coronation that we had seen the day before in the Louvre.

Justin in the Hall of Mirrors.

The coronation photo. Napoleon's throne sitting in front.

After we went through the interior we went to quickly explore the grounds.  Justin had read about the fact that at 11 a.m. they were going to have all the fountains going and music playing in the background.  We paid the 8 euros for him and I whipped out my UT student ID and got a 2 euro discount.

In front of one of the fountains with the palace in the background.

 The gardens are immense. Huge. Giant. So big you can rent a golf cart to drive around the grounds. 

Immense. Huge. Giant.

The fountains going full blast.

We took advantage of the lack of the line at the restrooms that were conveniently located across the path from a snack stand selling Nutella crepes. So we shared a crepe.

Yum!

After the snack we went back to the main path leading the grand canal and decided that we weren't in France long enough to spend the whole day there, though we easily could have because as I said the gardens are immense. Huge. Giant.

Awe struck by the it all.

Us blocking a gorgeous view.

The gorgeous view.

Fun hipstamatic picture of the gardens.

We took the train back. I promptly fell asleep.

Back in the city we went to Musée Marmottan Monet.  There was not a lot of Monet there and we left hungry. For both more Monet and lunch. We knew we could take care of one of those appetites.

Once done with the museum, I led us into the part of the trip Justin would much rather forget.

We went to look for a restaurant in the St. Germain area that someone recommended to me and we had marked on the map and everything. We just marked it in the wrong place. Like 1 hour worth of wandering around hungry and tired in the city wrong place. We found a cafe (duh!) and ate croque madames. Yum. They helped to heal the wounds.

The Cafe in St. Germain.

It's a croque monsieur with an egg on top. Who doesn't love that?!

I split the wounds open not more than a hour later. How? By convincing Justin to trust me and hop on the metro and go with me. Where did we go? To the end of the train line to get to the flea markets (we never made it to the cool stuff). What's the first thing we see upon getting up to street level? A man lying in the ground on the street with a crowd around him.

Justin almost left me. Like our relationship. At the end of the line.  Because who would take someone they love to this place.

So I said, ok, my friend told me about this place with cool performance artists.  I struck out again.

Basically I was benched.

Justin became the leader and we went back to the St. Germain area to find a beer place that Justin had read good things about.  The people lied.  So we went across the street to another place- La Pinte. We tipped them when we left and they rang a bell.  We think it meant- "Look at the stupid Americans who tipped us."

Beers at the place that sucked, but my first (and definitely not my last) Monaco.

Resolved to salvage the day and and end things on a high note, we went to La Caveau du Palais on Île de la Cité.  We ate a delicious meal. My escargot was awesome. My beef tartar was awesome too. But be warned it is not steak tartar. It is a raw hamburger patty. It was seasoned beautifully. But there was something that prevented me from eating the whole thing.

The beautiful menu.

Upon finishing the meal Justin wanted to see Notre Dame at night, because, well, we were never going to see it again.  Despite the fact that my feet hurt so much I thought my toes were bleeding, I said "yes!"

Those kids hanging out on the river in Paris drinking beer on a beautiful night have rough lives.

Some nice Parisian took our picture.

An unobstructed view of Notre Dame.

See- a high note! Those smiles mean business.

The plaza was packed. Notre Dame was beautiful and totally worth it. We even saw a guy getting chased down by the cops!  Now that's an action packed Saturday night.

We agreed to sleep in the next day and get totally refreshed so that we could reboot me, the metro navigator, and start anew the next day.

Springtime in Paris-Day 1…

Justin I were lucky enough to spend 6 days in Paris (April 1-April 6)before we then spent 5 days in Rome (April 7-April 11).

Paris was amazing. Even if I was cranky from lack of sleep and dehydration for the first 2 days.  But I was in Paris with (I’m gonna get gushy here) the love of my life and how can one be cranky under such awesome circumstances? A pounding headache that I worked hard to ignore and so on Day One we did the following:

-Landed
-Got into our cute studio apartment on the true 4^th floor of the building- ground entrance= level zero
-Walked the 300 meters from our apartment to the Louvre

-Did Rick Steve’s awesome free audio tour  of the Louvre, which hit the highlights

Mona Lisa!

-Wandering down towards the Opera to get our first taste of Paris for lunch
-Walked the length of the Tuileries to check out the Concorde Obelisk

-Went to Musée de l'Orangerie and saw some awesome panaromic paintings of Monet water lilies 0800

 -Went to Musée d’Orsay (an amazing building that used to be a train station) and saw some wonderful post-impressionistic pieces from Van Gogh.

Then we went back to the apartment and got there at about 5:30. Justin went to the restroom. I laid down on the couch (which was covered up when the Murphy bed was pulled down) and the next thing I knew I woke up wondering where I was and why Justin was asleep on the floor. He hadn’t wanted to disturb me and was apparently wiped out enough to also pass out where ever his body landed. 

We woke up hungry and went in search of something yummy.  Ended up at Café Des Intitiés.

 Our meal started was some delicious escargot   

Justin had veal:

I had a hamburger with some awesomely sautéed and salted fois gras. It. Was. Outstanding. 

We shared some wine. And ended the dinner with a delicious crème brûlée.

With full tummies and the need to rest up for the next day- a trip to Versailles- we went home and passed out- this time we both got a comfy spot on the bed.

Seven hours...

Seven hours is about the length of the work day for most people. Seven hours also happened to be the difference in time zones between San Antonio, TX and Rome, Italy.  Which is where we were two weeks ago today.

This week my friend pointed out to me that I hadn't posted anything since the spring forward time change. Honestly, the time change felt like it was less than two weeks ago and for me it kinda was since we were traveling.

The week or so leading up to our trip was a little bit crazy. I planned a surprise party for Justin's 30th birthday and it was awesome and actually surprised him, despite my constant paranoia about it.

Here's the cake in all its Gator Orange and Blue glory.

Back to our trip- we went to Paris and Rome and had quite an amazing time with a fine balance between the stuff you're supposed to see and the stuff we wanted to do (eat/drink/people watch).

We might not have seen it all, but we saw a ton. I will actually post more later. I pinky swear.

And it made us re-appreciate spending time together.  Now, Justin thinks a nice evening is drinking an awesome bottle of wine friends brought over to a past shindig and watching something fun on t.v.  Tonight's movie is Role Models on FX.  Tonight's wine is Saxon Brown's 2007 Semillon from Cricket Creek Vineyards in Alexander Valley.

If anyone wants to buy us a real a real flexible ice pack that would be fantastic. Tonight we went a little Whiskey Tango and used my eye mask that was in the freezer.

Here's hoping everyone had a wonderful Easter weekend!  We enjoyed lunch with our moms and Justin's Grandma, Sister and Brother-in-Law with a lunch at El Chaparral in Boerne.  And our awesome neighbor brought over some delicious homemade cheesecake with homemade crust and some homemade chocolate cakes.

And what could top an awesome day like today?

Tomorrow I have jury duty.

Can I bring bottle of white wine there? It's not metal, it should make it through the metal detectors, right?

Springing Forward...

This is undoubtedly one of our (mine and Justin's) least favorite days of the year. You lose that hour while sleeping. And you wake up and there's less time in the day. You're already behind and you didn't even have a chance to get ahead cause a whole hour is gone. Poof.

Image from:
http://technabob.com/blog/2009/04/04/twirling-dali-wall-clock/

So there's always those articles about what you do with that extra hour in the fall. But what do you do when you lose that hour.  Just stay in bed and call it a day? Watch basketball with baited breath hoping your team makes it past the bubble. Act like you don't know why you're late everywhere your supposed to be that day? Bask in that extra hour of sunlight (if it's not overcast out like it was in San Antonio today?)

Oddly enough I have been incredibly productive. Well for me. Especially for me on a Sunday.

• We checked out the place at which we'd like to board Wookie! when we travel in the future.
• I got laundry going. It's still going.
• I grocery shopped.
• We went to the gym.
• I read a little (Eat, Pray, Love).
• Took a nap.
• Currently cooking my food for the upcoming week (Potential winners of the office's Biggest Loser competition have to make game plans you know.)
• Watching Hitch on TBS right now.
• And of course blogging. Which I hadn't done in a little longer than I'd like to admit. But you can see exactly how long it's been.

Now I need to go fold some laundry.  Just as soon as Hitch is over.