The Christmas Tree is decorated!

Right after Thanksgiving we decorated the Christmas tree. Buzz was able to get the tree together, and his mom and the two of us decorated it. It turned out pretty good.

Just before the decorations.

Buzz decorating the tree.

Just after the tree was up, Kitty found her new hiding place. She now runs under one side of tree, does a U-turn and then lays right under it. She hasn't yet realized that we can see her under the tree.

Thanksgiving Day

Everyone was invited to our house this year, including Buzz's Mom who flew down for a week. In my usual fashion, I had dinner planned and was shopping for the Thanksgiving's meal weeks in advance (that's the only way to get the sales!). Also, the cooking started two days before so that we would only need to cook the turkey the day of.

On Thursday by the time I got up, Buzz had the turkey prepped and we were ready to season it and get it stuffed. By 7:30 the turkey was in the oven, the kitchen was cleaned, and we waited for the basting to begin.

And by noon, we had a fully cooked turkey with stuffing! It was a gorgeous turkey, wasn't it? This was year two using this particular recipe, and I don't think it will be the last.

Preparing the salad.

All set and ready for dinner.

Enough food to feed an army!

By the time everyone had arrived, the kitchen was overflowing with food. Besides the food we had prepared, Mom and Grandpa also brought food and desserts. We had the turkey and stuffing, a corn casserole, a potato casserole, a sweet potato casserole, rolls, a salad with home made dressing and Ranch, and three desserts! Needless to say, we didn't go hungry.

Buzz wound up eating both turkey legs. Yumm!

After dinner, we finished going through Black Friday ads and took a few family pictures. The rest of the day was spent relaxing and recovering from the big meal.

Searching for Black Friday deals!

Family pics!

The Whole Gang!

Boxing Kitty

For your enjoyment, Buzz and Kitty face off.

Happy Birthday!

Happy Birthday to you! Happy Birthday to You! Happy Birthday, dear Buzz! Happy Birthday to you!

Forever the proud Bengals fan!

It's Pumpkin Day!

For Halloween this year, we continued our tradition of carving pumpkins and baking the seeds.


Buzz designed two pumpkins this year and both turned out great. My favorite carved pumpkin is the second one. Just before the trick-or-treaters came, we put both on the front porch with candles in each one. Before long, the porch smelled like pumpkin cookies.

As for goodies made, we enjoyed baked pumpkin seeds and pumpkin pies. We snacked on the seeds all afternoon. After dinner, the pies were done and ready to eat. I made two pies yesterday, one for now and one for Thanksgiving. The pie was great yesterday, but is even better after a day in the fridge.

Celebrating year 2 in NM

For our 2nd anniversary we flew back to New Mexico to celebrate it along with Oktoberfest. We left Thursday so that we would have two full days in NM.

Friday we drove to Cloudcroft and then drove further into the mountains to the Solar Observatory. As we drove into the mountains, we stopped on the side of the road to take pictures of the old railroad trellis that use to run through the mountains.

To Cloudcroft, the view of the trellis.

Once we got to Cloudcroft, we walked through town, visited the shops, and ate at our favorite restaurant. Despite being in the NM mountains, this little hole in wall had the best shrimp boil. And we had just barely missed the last one! The shrimp boils were Thursday night. Though we had flown in Thursday afternoon, we didn't make it.

Buzz's sad face...no shrimp today.

Haynes Canyon Vista, on the way to the Observatory.

The next stop was the solar observatory. Though we had driven all over the state, we had never been to this little spot. Some of the darkest night in the US are found in this area of NM. We walked around the museum and then decided to go check out the telescopes. You could actually walk into the buildings that housed two of the telescopes.

Just outside of the museum.

Only 1/3 of this telescope is above ground.

The oldest telescope on the premises.

As we walked back around to the first telescope, we spotted a herd of deer. There was a small trail that led behind the telescope's building. In an effort to get a better look at the animals, we decided to take a walk. We were within feet of all of the animals. The funny thing was the first time we walked past that area I had a feeling that we were being watched by deer. However, I couldn't see any of them. Apparently, they had been just beyond our view the first time around.

Saturday we stayed in town. Once we woke up, we headed to our favorite breakfast place, the Pancake and Waffle Shoppe. We use to eat there once every weekend. Driving by the place, you wouldn't think anything of it. However, it is packed from the moment it opens at 6 am. After breakfast and spending the morning around town, we headed back to the hotel to watch the Purdue game. Unfortunately, they did not do so well. At half time, we headed out the door to Oktoberfest.

Buzz's favorite Pub, now closed.

Oktoberfest is held on the military base, so it easiest to take the bus in. We got there by 4, took in the festivities, and found a table to sit. The event begins with the band marching into the hanger. Both the US and German national anthem is sung. Afterwards, you are free to grab a drink in any of the multiple 'gardens' for beer, wheat beer, or wine.

Festivities inside the hanger.

Two Bengals fans along way from home.

Plenty of drinks for all.

Relaxing in the wine garden with new friends.

This was the first year we didn't know a lot of people at Oktoberfest. However, we quickly made new friends. We all decided to meet at the same table next year.

Jazz by the Boulevard

Towards the middle of September, Buzz and I headed down to the cultural district to enjoy some jazz. This was the first year either one of us had attended. I heard about the event on the radio one morning. Since I love jazz, I just had to check it out.

The main stage.

While we were there, we got to watch the Culinary Art School make two different dishes. The first was a mango and pineapple salsa; the second was a bean dip. Since then, we've made our own mango salsa that has gotten rave reviews from family and friends.

The last picture is your truly, standing to the side of the main stage.

Making hot salsa

Inspired by Zestfest, we pulled a few things out of the garden and tried making our own hot salsa. Buzz's coworker had given us a recipe that we had been wanting to test out. Overall, it turned out pretty good. It was definitely too hot for me! Alas, Buzz will have to eat it all himself.

Happy ingredients make for good salsa.

Julia Child eat your heart out!

Chili Zestfest 2008

This weekend we decided to head out for a little fun. Having seen the billboards around town for the Zestfest, we decided to see what all of the fuss was about. We had heard that it was a collection of the zestiest salsas, hot sauces and fiery foods around. We found out that there were a few salsas that were more than fiery. Two hot sauces in particular were down right painful! How do we know that? Buzz tried one of them. His throat and taste buds were unusable due to the pain for about 20 minutes. He sweat through his baseball cap!

After trying the "Stupid Hot" hot sauce.

This was "Crazy Mother Puckers Liquid Lava."
How can you not trust that face?

Our intrepid band of participants.

Something to share...

Composed by the most talented Buzz in tribute to our "Big Fluffy Comforter" that needs to be cleaned at a Laundromat.

MY COMFORTER IS BIG AND FLUFFY BLUES

My comforter is big and fluffy
It won't fit in my washing machine
I said, my comforter is so big and fluffy
It won't fit in my washing machine
I’ll have to go to the Laundromat
And try and get that comforter clean

When your comforter is too big and fluffy
Your washer needs to be supersized
When your comforter is too big and fluffy
Your washer needs to be supersized
Gonna cost you at least three fifty
To get your comforter sanitized

I’m going to need some good detergent
Cause big and fluffy is so hard to clean
Gonna need some good detergent, mama
Cause big and fluffy is so hard to clean
Don’t want no scents, dyes or perfumes
And got to stop that static cling

Big and fluffy gets so sudsy
That the soap won’t rinse away
My big and fluffy gets so sudsy
That the soap won’t rinse away
When we get to the spin cycle
It’ll take all night and day

Keep on drying big and fluffy
One quarter at a time
Trying to dry my big and fluffy
Twenty-five cents at a time
After drying for seventeen long hours
Still gotta hang big and fluffy on the line

People, better heed my warning
One day soon you’ll have to choose
I’m beggin’, PLEASE, please heed my warning
Cause you know you’ll have to choose
Don’t let your big and fluffy get dirty
I’m talking bout keep your big and fluffy from being dirty
Don’t let your pets sleep on your big and fluffy and get it dirty
Don’t put your big and fluffy at the bottom of some shelf and stack stuff on top of it and make it dirty
I’m saying don’t put your big and fluffy comforter down on the floor while you’re doing some home improvement project where lots of sawdust and drywall stuff starts blowing around the air and then you set some greasy tool down on it without thinking, but you pick it up quick and see the big black smudge you left on it, so you try and wipe it off, but you use your greasy hand and it just makes the smudge worse and you’re like, oh crap, I need to hide this but then your wife walks in and she’s like, what did you do to my comforter and you’re like, what, it was like that when I came in here, but she knows that you’re lying and you know you ain’t gonna get any for a long while cause you just got her great grandma’s hand-stitched comforter dirty…
Or you’re gonna have the “My Comforter is Big and Fluffy” blues…..

For the record, there is no big black smudge left by the composer that composer's wife had to yell at composer for creating.

Garden Creatures

For quite a while now, something has been eating my tomato plants. Last week, as I was working in the garden, I finally came across the culprit! It was a rather large caterpillar, who was almost done eating another one of my tomatoes!


Also, with me in the garden that morning were two toads. When I first saw them, I thought they would find a new home for the morning. Well, they never left the garden. As I worked, they would just move a little to the left or right, just enough room to allow me to work.


We have also seen two rabbits in our back yard. So with the cats, rabbits, toads, and caterpillars, we are becoming our own zoo.

Our New Bed

We got a new bed, and we are super excited! When Buzz and I got married, we got rid of his two twin beds and moved my full size bed into the master bedroom. Since then, we've been sleeping on a full size bed together. However, we did both adjust. Well, we finally had the opportunity to buy a new bed, and we've upgraded to a Queen.

Delivery of the bed.

Yeah us!

Look, Mom! My feet don't hang off the bed!

We've slept on the bed for a week now, and love it! We love the extra space and added comfort.

Gone Bowling

Over Labor Day weekend, Buzz and I decided to go bowling. It had been a long time since I bowled. Mostly, Buzz scored well above 100, and I scored well below 100. However, by game three my scores were improving. I even got a strike and a couple of spares.

The Last of the Painting

At the beginning of August, we hosted a painting party. We needed some help to finish painting the house. We had the master bedroom and the big room left, which consisted of the kitchen, dinette, and den. If several people showed up, we knew that it all could be painted in one weekend.

Saturday was the big painting party, but there was lots to be done before everyone showed up. The day before, Buzz and I prepped the areas. By Saturday afternoon, we had the area covered with tarps and blankets, and had already painted the ceiling once. By the time the evening rolled around, the ceiling had been painted twice and everything was taped off. We were ready for the crowds to show up!

Saturday morning, my folks showed up with my brother and cousin. With the additional four people we finished the painting by 3 that afternoon-much faster than if Buzz and I had done all the work ourselves.

Buzz in the kitchen.

Even with the windows open, it was HOT!

We're having fun!

Look at those edges! Perfect!

The bedroom is almost done!

The painting is done and it's time for clean up!