Monday, February 28, 2011

Boys and BBQ

I have mentioned several times that Mr. Pickle and some others are a part of a BBQ team. Well,
I am very proud to announce that Starvin Marvins BBQ Team has a new site!!



LINK

Go check it out, become a follower and maybe they will share some of their secrets of how they make such delicious BBQ.
Congrats boys and good luck on the upcoming competition season!!
Pics stolen from their site

Thursday, February 24, 2011

Weekend Review

Better late than never, right?!?

I say it every time, but three day weekends are where it's at!!

Friday night my sister and I met up to do some sewing. We followed this YouTube video and made ourselves some fancy reversible aprons.


I must say, this project was more difficult and time consuming than our others thus far, but I think it would be easy peasy after doing it a few times. We are very happy with how they turned out.

Saturday morning Mr. Pickle and I went out to breakfast and then came home and lounged all.day.long.

Mr. Pickle with whip cream on his nose :)

It was so nice to not have an agenda and just relax. We watched The Town which we both liked, but I swear my blood pressure was up at some of the suspenseful scenes!!
Sunday morning Mr. Pickle's parents came over to help us with a few house projects. Mr. Pickle's mancave is pretty much complete with all of his sports paraphernalia hanging on the walls. We had a lunch date with some friends at a nearby dim sum restaurant and it was tasty. I always crave dim sum, but don't eat it very often so it was a nice treat. Later in the day we went to my grandpa's to visit with him and bring him dinner. I tried Tara's pot roast recipe (found here) and thought it turned out great.

Monday we did some chores around the house and enjoyed our extra day off!! It was a beautiful day, but a little chilly!
Snow on Mt. Diablo

Tuesday, February 22, 2011

Random Ramblings

I can't believe I haven't blogged in a week. My, my where does the time go? Here are some random things I have had going on.

- Cleaning out my closet - In case anyone is interested, I am selling some Citizen, Joe's, Seven and Paige jeans sizes 29-32. I am going to Buffalo Exchange next weekend, but figured I would throw it out there should any of you gals want first dibs. Almost all are in great condition. I have pics if interested.
- Snow and Blossoms - Since we had some fabulous spring like weather a few weeks ago a lot of the trees are in bloom, however just recently we had some cold weather & rain which left snow on Mt. Diablo. It is so beautiful to see blossoms on trees and snow on the mountain in the background.
- Diamond is playing tricks on me - A few weeks ago, I lost a diamond in my wedding ring
:( I of course was devastated and spent a lot of time looking for it, but didn't find it. It is insured, but I haven't put in a claim yet because I want to see how much it will cost to replace (due to the deductible). Today I went home for lunch to let the dogs out and eat some leftovers and I casually looked out back to check on the dogs. I SWEAR I saw my diamond out in the back yard amongst the tan bark, but by the time I got out there the dogs were playing in that area and I couldn't find it. I searched a little, but couldn't find anything. Possibly it wasn't even the diamond, but I am still always looking down searching for it, even in places it absolutely wouldn't be.
- Mail Carrier or Mother? - Last week our dog snuck out of the front door while I was leaving for work and I didn't notice. When I came home for lunch, he was hanging in the front yard. I couldn't believe he got out, but was happy he stuck around. A few days later I got a nasty letter from our mail carrier about the dog being out therefore she was unable to deliver mail to the rest of our neighbors houses and to not let it happen again. Now I understand the concern of a dog being out and about with no supervision, especially for someone who probably gets the wrath of dogs when delivering mail, but the letter was so nasty and somewhat condescending as if I purposely let me dog run wild throughout the neighborhood. I mean, I wouldn't have minded a friendly FYI letter rather than a letter scolding me like she is my mother. (For the record, this is my friendly dog who wouldn't hurt a fly although is bigger so it is understandable how someone would be cautious around him.)
- Country songs in the morning - Lately I have been waking up with random country songs stuck in my head. The odd thing is, is that they are songs that I don't usually like or know the words to, yet all of a sudden I am singing them in my head. Same thing happened with the new Brittany Spears song after I heard it for like 20 seconds.
- Crab season? - Mr. Pickle and I were going to make crab for dinner on Saturday night and drove around to 3 different stores to buy it before we gave up. I thought this was crab season? How come I see a ton of crab when we aren't looking for it but the one time we want it, we can't find it anywhere? I guess we should have gone to that crab feed at the community center last weekend.
- Mini eggs are going to be the death of me. - Nuff' said.

Tuesday, February 15, 2011

Weekend Review

Mr. Pickle was in San Diego over the weekend, so I was solo in the house.

Friday night I was a party animal and watched some shows on TLC (you know all the wedding ones), went to the grocery store and went to bed early!!! Whew, I sure know how to party.
Saturday my sister and I took my mom out for her birthday. We went to a few stores and went to a Mexican restaurant in downtown Pleasanton.




Saturday night we headed to San Francisco to celebrate our friend's birthday. The party was 80's themed, I love theme parties!!!













Sunday morning I baked brownies for Mr. Pickle (see previous post) before I picked him up from the airport. We went to Outback for an early dinner and spent the rest of the evening cuddled up watching tv.

Monday, February 14, 2011

Happy Heart Day

Happy Valentine's Day!!
Mr. Pickle and I don't really have plans for tonight other than to hang out and order pizza (maybe even a heart shaped one).
Yesterday, before I picked Mr. Pickle up from the airport, I made him some brownies.

Sprinkled with crunched up Heath Bar

Mini Reese's Peanut Butter cup pressed in the middle
I got the idea from Katie. Thanks for letting me steal your idea Katie!!
Hope you all have a wonderful day whatever you decide to do.

Thursday, February 10, 2011

Pillow Fight

My sister and I got together again last night to get our sew on. The project we worked on last night was a pillow case, which actually wasn't too hard (although we did cut the fabric incorrectly and made it harder than it needed to be).

With the help of this YouTube video, we were able to complete our project!






I'm so proud of us!!

Tuesday, February 8, 2011

Dreams Do Come True

Okay, so maybe that title is a bit dramatic, but while I was awake in the middle of the night last night desperately trying to find something on TV, I saw a mini infomercial for Pajamagram. It is described as giving "the gift of relaxation" by sending your loved one pajamas. They were heavily advertising as the perfect gift to give for Valentine's Day and just when I was thinking to myself who on earth thinks of this/buys these, I saw.....
In their words, "Valentine's Day just got hotter!" Ummmmm, I must get a pair!!! They are made of microfleece, has a drawstring hood (duh), pockets in front, long sleeves with thumb holes, feeties (is that a word?), can be personalized AND they come in pink?!?! Sounds like the perfect 'I'm freezing and can't get warm' solution.
Would you still be my friend if I showed up for a slumber party at your house and wore my personalized pink Hoodie Footie?
Pic found here

Monday, February 7, 2011

Weekend Review - Sans Pictures

Again, another weekend with no pictures. What is wrong with me?!?!

Well, I didn't have the most exciting weekend, but it was still a good weekend. Mr. Pickle was out of town and I was at home alone with the pups. It was actually nice to have some me time.

Friday after work I came home and jumped into my running clothes. I was so excited to explore the trails around the new house and enjoy the wonderful weather. Friday night I ordered Chinese food for dinner and watched a movie I rented from Red Box.

Saturday morning I woke up to another beautiful day! I wish this weather was normal for winter in CA because I LOVE it! I ran some errands and spent the rest of the day cleaning out/unpacking the garage.

Sunday I did some more unpacking and organizing and didn't watch more than one minute of the Super Bowl. I don't know why, but I wasn't interested in the game AT ALL this year. I was jealous of all the yummy food people were posting pics of on Facebook though. I had Sex And The City reruns on all afternoon while I was unpacking. I spent part of my afternoon outside enjoying the sunshine and had all the windows and doors open to air out the house.

Overall a quiet and successful weekend. I even put together our guest book from our wedding...yes, we got married in August of 2007. But after we returned from the wedding in Hawaii, I was busy planning the at home reception in California and after that was over, I was anti doing ANYTHING wedding related.

(Our guest book for the actual wedding was a picture guest book where people took pictures and then signed the page their picture went on. I simply had to trim the picture and put it on the page, there were only 60 guests in Hawaii, it still took me YEARS to actually sit down and complete it.)

Thursday, February 3, 2011

Look At Us Go

My sis and I practiced sewing again last night. We even completed our first project, a drawstring bag!!

(excuse the hair and no make-up)

I have to give props to this video (from YouTube), because we of course wouldn't have been able to do it on our own.

There are several uses for our little drawstring bag, but here is just a sample of what it can be used for.

Wine Bottle Bag

I am so excited to make another one!

Tuesday, February 1, 2011

My life is so glamorous

This was the extent of my lunch break (I go home for lunch)...

- Clean up kitchen floor under and around refrigerator (something is wrong with our ice maker and it leaked water all over the floor...at least it's water)
- Pick up dog poop in the backyard (Sounds appetizing I know, but there isn't enough light at night by the time I get home from work)
- Clean up dog puke from my carpet (stupid dog ate grass)

Contain your jealousy my friends!!!