Hot Pot & Wii - Round 2

Since N & A were not able to make it last time, we had another evening of hot pot and Wii-ing. Pretty much the same food as last time.

N & A brought their little cutey pie, K. Isn't he the cutest?!!?



A made this great peppermint ice cream cake. It was two layers of chocolate cake with peppermint ice cream in the middle and covered cool whip and sprinkled with Ghiradelli peppermint chocolates. I'm not a peppermint fan but this was super yummy. We have plenty leftover, thanks A! Hey Justin guess what we're having for dinner?



JS was a bit worn out from all the Wii-ing and eating so he took a brief nap.

Check out the dancing...

Introducing Mr. & Mrs. J!!

Here they are! The reception was in Phoenix at a beautiful location with mountains as the backdrop. It was pretty cool out that night but totally worth it. There was great food, plenty alcohol and awesome friends. Check out more cool photos here: http://www.jeffersontodd.com/slideshows/allisonryan/






Here is the gift I made them. Its a frame to put one of their many wedding photos. The other picture is the wrapping.



The next day we didn't fly out early so we had the day to spend in AZ. We drove up north a bit to Cave Creek and had lunch at the Satisfied Frog and had Chili Beer. There is actually a seranno pepper in that beer J is drinking. He thought it was great.

Too funny!

The other day Squeaky and I were watching TV and there were guys with 6 packs (washboard abs) and I said, Squeaky why can't you have one of those and he says I have something better, I have a keg!

I thought it was so clever and funny. I still laugh about it and wanted to share before I forget.

Thanksgiving 2007 - asian style

This year Thanksgiving was at my friend M's house. I made the turkey, which was 19lbs. Here's me after rubbing mayo on it.

Here I am putting it into the roasting pan after stuffing it into a oven bag. :)

Here are the dishes we had. There was eggplant, shrimp, spicy pork, salmon and of course turkey! YUM-O!!

We were so stuffed! But yet afterwards we still had room for persimmons, pistchachios and chinese red bean pastries. Super good, there was no stopping! Here's to another great Thanksgiving. This is M and I. :)

Will the post office take these?

Classes for this semester are almost over, there's only 3 more weeks. Whoo hoo! The classes that I'm taking are Digital Illustration, which is actual designing of projects and Production Illustration which is more about learning techniques for prepress. Both use Illustrator and have been fun and stressful at times.


My latest project has been to design postage stamps with themes related to America. The two below used only Illustrator (drawing with the computer). I decided to do favorite past times. I love the popcorn but the bowling definitely needs work. That was my last one and I was tired of working on them. :)




These two I used Photoshop and Illustrator. These I really like, especially the Alaska one.


I'll be posting some of my other projects as well which included a clock face, amusement park map and a month of a calendar (I picked April of course).

Someone's a Rock Star!

We got Guitar Hero III for the Wii back in October and we've finally opened it. Look who's already a star! Anyone need a coffe table, I don't think it is ever going to go back to its normal spot. It has been reassigned as the Wii space.

A new baby!

Our friends M&J had an adorable little boy. Isn't he cute? Can't wait to meet him in person at Xmas.

Landen
Born 11/19/07 9:58am
18 3/4 inches
6 pounds 13 ounces

Bistro Campagne ... YUM-O!

Every so often the couples from Iowa, get together for dinner. This time we went to a French place called Bistro Campagne. It was great food and wine and perfect company.

Some entrees we had were:

Blanquette de Limande - sautéed lemon sole, clams, roasted potatoes & tarragon cream sauce

Poulet Rôti Forestière - roasted chicken, wild mushroom ragoût, onion frites

Boeuf Bourguignon - red wine-braised Tallgrass™ beef, roasted potatoes & aromatic vegetables

Cassoulet - Pinn-Oak Ridge lamb, pork sausage, duck confit, pork belly, beans & herbed bread crumbs

The boys and N also had a tawny for desert, go N!

The leaves are falling!

This is what I see when I drive into work, isn't it beautiful? Its the only good thing about working in the forest!

Finally a Deck!!!

After 4 years in the house, we've finally gotten around to getting a deck built. Squeaky was being squeaky as usual, but its actually done!! Squeaky's co-worker has done an excellent job. With my design and J.O.'s muscle, its beautiful!

10/5/07

10/19/07

10/26/07

11/5/07

When you come and visit next summer we'll be able to eat outside instead of being cooped up inside!! Now I just have to convince squeaky to let me get patio furniture...

Iowa 28 - Northwestern 17

J&N, A&N and Squeaky and I went to the Iowa game at Northwestern. It was a perfect day out and amoung a sea of purple we won!! Go Hawks!

Rockin' the House!

A few weeks ago, we got the Wii game Dance Dance Revolution. Who knew that two skinny white boys would be so into it! They decided it would be fun to drink beer and stay up until 3am dancing. Want to check it out?

(sorry you'll have to watch the video sideways.)
Squeaky

Jar Jar

A long time ago in a galaxy far, far, away....

When Jar Jar found out the museum was going to have an exhibit on Star Wars, he just had to go. So we got stuck with him for a weekend. Pretty neat to see all this stuff. Check it out...

The baby chicks had a rancor protecting them, isn't it cute?


Can you tell who is who?


Chole and I had fun going through NetWorld, plus we got lovely necklaces out of it.


The exhibit had a lot of props there, which was super neat to see up close. Luv these two, can I have them to do all my housework? Yoda rocks!


Since it was pretty close to Halloween, there were people there carving pumpkins. The one on the right is Darth Maul. Wish I could do that!


So the story goes that Squeaky used to have a space shuttle a long time ago but Jar Jar broke it. So being the nice guy that he is (not!) he got Squeaky a new one!! Awww...

Halloween! Spoooooky...

This year we've added a few more items to our Halloween decor. Kitty helped a lot with the bodies, he sure did love the straw and pulling it out of their arms and legs. The bodies lived in our living room for awhile so everytime I would walk by, I would get scared, just a little. :D

Its too cold!

What is up with this weather?