Again!

Today is our anniversary. (hi, btw, it's been awhile...) 3 glorious years! :) Well, obviously not every moment has been glorious (mostly my fault, I'm very sure) but I am very happy to be married and very happy that it's to Walter. (yay!)

So what did we do? Well first off, Walter did NOT go to the court house bc he was excused from the current jury duty case (hooray). He got called up this month. Instead, we slept in, ate a delicious breakfast of homemade biscuits and real pork sausage (we normally go for the healthier turkey alternative), and made the decision to join the hordes of people "geocacheing". I have no idea, hordes may be an overstatement. But if you check it out there are tons of little geocaches out there. All over the place. It's like a random little treasure hunt that could send you anywhere in the world. It's supposed to be a great way to get off the beaten path and explore with a purpose. I'm not sure about that yet.

We tried to find 3 that are supposed to be right here in town. To no avail. One street had been re-done, presumably removing the cache. A parking lot was being repaved (or something). And the one we are absolutely certain we were exactly where it should be just wasn't there. Probably an over zealous gardener found the item and disposed of it promptly. Alas. A slightly less than stellar begining but at least we figured out the website and got ourselves a user name. There's no stopping us now. ;) It's pretty geeky but we had fun travelling around and exploring fields, gazebos, etc. Very nice.

After our geocaching adventure we headed over to Memphis to pick up Walter's present. We don't normally do big deal presents but this was just perfect so I made an exception. :) We scouted out a few music stores and headed home with a bass guitar, amp, headphones, stand, and two instructional dvds. I've been promised a serenade for our next anniversary. Although I bought this with Walter completely in mind I have to say that I'm not entirely bummed to have an instrument in the house. I've already had him teach me a little of what he's had a chance to learn. I'm going to have to remember that it is HIS present, not mine. :)

Walter took me out for my absolute favorite coconut shrimp (Joe's Crab Shack) and even let me steal one of his hush puppies (an old favorite from the days of Long John Silvers... oh my). All in all, a wonderful day so far. Lots of smiles. Lots of laughs. And the night is yet young.

So on a different note:
I've got some fun online finds I really think you should check out.

• Dr. Horrible's Sing Along Blog This one you gotta move fast on! It's a free internet tv show that is only free until 20th. And Act I is great! Especially if you're a big Nathan Fillion fan (like me).
• xkcd A fun comic Walter introduced me to (he even made me a super cute anniversary card with one of the strips). This is where my new header came from. I can't vouche for all of it but I have enjoyed what I've read so far. It does come with a warning. Check it out at the bottom of the page. Made me chuckle.

Quick! Totally worth it.

Midnight Cravings

I found this idea from an eatingwell.com newsletter i get emailed to me. and even tho' the picture next to the recipe looked... less than tasty... to me i still had to try it. they're Amazing! here's what you've got to try: graham cracker spread with ricotta cheese and jelly (mine was marion berry). it's your own super quick cheese cake. i had 5 or 6. so addictive. so wonderful!

The real culinary props, however, go to Walter. He strained and strained raspberry seeds out of the puree in order to make this ridiculously tasty sorbet (so sorry the pic turned itself sideways... too late to figure out why just now). It's the first recipe we've tried in my new Baking with Agave Nectar cookbook. So far 100% success. I think next we're trying watermelon sorbet bc it takes less agave nectar than the raspberry one.

B-Ham

today: drinking tea and cognac in birmingham. both are pleasant and unexpected discoveries. also, basmati rice with homemade humus. my stomach is content.

yesterday: fast-food on the road to birmingham and appetizers at olive garden with mike. we had fried calamari, pepperoni pizza, and bruschetta. yum yum.

yesterday: a walk around the apartments trailing 10 kids.

today: a walk thru the botanical garden's hydrangea sale and around the lake.

today: mariokart on the wii and too many sudoku puzzles on the ds.

yesterday: napping and singing in the car.

tomorrow: church and Iron Man perhaps.

it's good to visit friends.

Come Hell or High Water...

and i can promise you the high water's coming first.

we made it to and from the beale street music festival last night in one piece! we mingled around between the stages, saw Flyleaf, Joan Jett, and some really fun bands over at the blues shack. we did a lot of people watching, ate some amazing crepes, listened to the 18 year old in front of us brag about how even cops were ok with her having alcohol when they looked at her id and then watched her get denied that frozen daquari bc they just weren't sure that the picture was of her, dodged pelting rain while waiting for ben folds and then gave up (totally soaked) and headed home. it was a lot of fun! we're heading back later today for Simple Plan, Seether, Disturbed, Matisyahu, Santana and maybe even Duman (a band from Turkey that I've yet to hear). Plus, we're going to get some funnel cake now that it's not raining. :) What are you doing with your weekend? Leave me a comment and let me know!

...

here's a quick glimpse at spring life here. It's involved lots of plant sales, planting, cleaning, building, home improvements, running the dogs in and out whenever the rain dictates, knitting, reading, planning... we've got 30 boxes of solid bamboo flooring sitting in our living room. soon to be covering the concrete and replacing the worn out old carpet! today i'll build (i hope) a home for the dogs (more or less) and plant into my windowboxes (the ones walter built and my mom and i stained... they're still in the garage). today's walter's last day of the semester. his final final is done and he's just pulled in the garage! (i know, you all care very much :/)

Happy Spring everybody!

flood pics

here are a couple of pics I took of the flood. for your enjoyment...

(the access road beside the highway)


(on the access road, ppl pull their mobil homes and rv's to higher ground hoping not to float away)


(sign in front of access road)


(one part of access road)

(cows grazing on the levee)

MISS-ISS-IPP-I

I don't know if y'all watch weather channel or if it's news anywhere else but I do know that my mom's interested if no one else is. :)

The Mighty Mississippi has been at flood stage for almost two weeks now and I took a movie to a) show you just how far it's stretched passed its usual banks and b) to reassure my momma that the levee will indeed hold ;). Here ya go:

and that's all I have time for now... I just found a gardening book from the library that I'd left outside in the rain so I'm off to blow dry about 350 pages and hope that I don't get a big fat fine. :/ At least my garden is bursting with green!

p.s. i wrote this post two days ago but couldn't publish it until i found a way to reduce the size of the video. i'm happy to report that the book looks pretty good thanks to my blowdryer and a day or so of smooshing by two bricks. yay! (4.05.08)