and tree makes three

We decided to get a live tree. It's the first live thing we've owned!
Picking up the tree was quite the adventure. We bought it at Home Depot (good deal, good trees, I recommend it), but once it was bought we needed a way to tie it to the top of my car. Rob went in to get some twine and was given a little genius advice from the Home Depot tree guy. Tie 4 separate loops out of 4 pieces of twine, roll them up in the windows, then you string a long piece of twine criss-crossing through those loops to secure the tree. Did any of that make sense? I knew when Rob explained the process, that I would utilize the strategy for the rest of my life. 

You should have seen us try to figure out how we were going to get in, and then out, of the car once the tree was tied. Embarrassing. 

oh, yeah.

Rob and I buy a lot of tortilla chips. These, from Trader Joes (sometimes. they don't always have them), are our newest delicious discovery. They're made with brown rice, potato and corn. They are a little sweet, in fact, they taste to me a little like sweet potato chips (yum!). Perfect for snacking. A little too perfect.

go here. get this

Go here.

Get this.

one happy birthday boy

A new version of happy birthday

Torsten and Simon are hoping that it will become adopted by popular culture:

We finally found our camera cable....

and we bring you this:


Untitled from gentle rob on Vimeo.

Makes for a good Sunday afternoon sandwich

Here's another one. This time it's spicy! Grilled cheese with green curry mayo (mix a little of curry paste with mayonnaise), apple slices, and walnuts,

Thanks, Jenaca, for the curry mayo idea.

do yourself a favor

Make a grilled cheese sandwich with cream cheese, cranberry sauce, red onions, and a slice of cheddar cheese. Even better - toast all of this on seedy bread that you make in your bread machine, then serve it with butternut squash soup.

Serious.

Live without Cable? Yes We Can!

I started to make a comment on Liv's post about her family going without a TV. I thought I'd post instead...

Rob and I decided together that we wouldn't have cable. I was so happy that he was willing to go without - I just know myself too well, that I will sit and watch tv if it's available. I think it's tougher for Rob - he's such a current events type of guy. He's also an internet type of guy, so he gets filled in there (on the latest movies, products, and really geeky stuff like new Mac products, etc.). But it is a sacrifice for him, having to wait until the latest season of 30 Rock was available on Netflix, for example.

We have an actual TV, and still turn in on throughout the week to watch television shows and movies we rent or borrow. Occasionally we watch "real-time" episodes of our favorite shows on the laptop (sometimes in our bed, which feels like a special occassion), and we schedule our workouts to watch The Office and The Hills. The difference is that it's purposeful, and so there's less of it.

Oh, and I don't know why people are worried about not being able to watch the news without cable. We are both avid NPR listeners, so that helps us stay current on local, national, and international news.

Question: What is worse, watching questionable shows like the Hills and 30 Rock because they happen to come on when you're parked in front of the boob-tube for the evening, or because you intentionally schedule time for them in your day? Hmm.

Here are some friends from these shows, by the way:

Moral of this post? There isn't one. I think it would be really difficult to change a cable lifestyle, we had a perfect "jumping off point" when we got married to do it this way. We may have cable in the future. I may have to let Rob have a game system to talk him into keeping it this way. We may get the new Netflix box - or whatever it is - so we can have easier access to what we want to watch (Rob is slowly convincing me that it is not like having cable). In any case, for now, this is how we do.

PS. exciting that 30 Rock comes on right after The Office, but that makes for a really long workout.

domesticated

I love this sweet baker



Don't worry, he's still a dude... he was making mummy pizza

babysitting weekend

Our babysitting weekend began when we babysat James' boys while James and Alicia went gambling. It was a fun night full of Justice League, a guitar jam session, and smart cookies!



The next night we were at Rob's brother's house. We had a fun night with the girls and little James. We played a little High School Musical sing-a-long on Wii. I love the picture of James sitting at his drumset.


A shout-out to Torsten and Simon. We didn't babysit them, but we did hang out and play video games (well, Rob played, I watched). We love those boys too!

rob at the farm

I was there too, as half of a good looking couple:

Honeymoon (Day Five and Six)

Okay, so I know that this post has been a long time coming. So if any of the details are a little blurry it's because our honeymoon was over a month ago and now the details are a little fuzzy. I will try to piece together the rest of our trip with the pictures that we have.

So I guess on our last day at Disneyland, we went on splash mountain one more time. Oh yeah, I think we went really early and the line was really short. Awesome! Yet another picture of my wet butt:

The kid in the front is almost as rad as me.
Oh yeah, and we totally went over to Toontown (which in my opinion is the lamest part of Disneyland) and we hung out with Mickey.

Our treat for the trip was going to a "fancy" restaurant. We went to the Blue Bayou which is the restaurant that is inside the Pirates of the Carribean. The restaurant was pretty cool, and I had my first ever Monte Cristo sandwich.



After this meal, we decided that 2 and a half days was plenty of Disneyland. Stephanie wanted to experience the Hollywood that she saw on The Hills. I took her to Grauman's Chinese theater, because that's all I thought there was in Hollywood.

"Umm. I don't know any of these stars" and "Why are there 15 guys dressed as Spiderman?"


So, one of our planned trips was to Pink's. I've been hyping it up for a while to Steph after the trip I took there with the New Awesome and Jared in '05.

The first thing you should know about Pink's is that you need to wait in line for about an hour. We stood next to this kid all night who was sent to get three chili cheese dogs for his friends. Guess who drew the short straw on that deal.

The other thing you should know about pinks is that their food is crazy. Two hot dogs inside of a tortilla with pastrami, chili and bacon? No problem.



Steph and I wussed out and oped for the traditional Chili-cheese dog and the Guadalajara dog. Both were pretty gross. I guess we just went for the experience of waiting in line for an hour for a hot dog.

The next day on our way out of town. We thought it would be cool to take a quick stop off at the Getty. Little did I know the place is freakin huge.

But also really beautiful.


In the few hours that we were there, we saw a few of the galleries...and this arch.

After, Steph wanted to go to the Beach. I don't know why, but I took her to Venice. Which is the trashiest beach that you can imagine. But I guess Steph wanted to see the real Hollywood.

Venice does have dope shades though.

And totally sick food. Worst Nachos Ever!!
But overall, Best Honeymoon Ever! Thanks Babe!
And the best part is that we got to come home and open presents!!!

a post about food

I was very excited about making bread. I made these pumpkin breadsticks, they were good and fun.They went with eggplant lasagna. This was the first meal I made after we got married. See, my face says, "I make delicious food for my family."
Not all my food is delicious, though. Cooking is fun, but it's a new hobby, so I'm still baffled by the fact I can follow a recipe to exactness and it doesn't turn out. Look at this, gross.

We didn't eat the above red curry and bok choy. Not to worry, Rob came home and rescued the meal with his own red curry. I should have known to leave the curry to the master. That's toasted coconut on top, I suggest adding toasted coconut to the top of your red curry!
We love coconut SO much that we even make pancakes with it (when we are copying the menu at the Original Pancake House). I suggest adding toasted coconut to your pancakes! I also suggest mixing up a quick citrus syrup to pour on top. Rob made the pancakes. He's master of those, too.

I don't know why we always want to share with you pictures of the food we make and eat, but we do. We'll probably keep doing it too, so we hope you enjoy!