Heat-ist

So, I have a weird quirk. Shocking, I know.

When it comes to food and drink...I'm extremely particular about the temperature of said food and drink. If it's supposed to be hot, I want it to almost burn my mouth. If it's supposed to be cold, it should be close to frozen. Kyle has therefore dubbed me a "Heat-ist". 

I was reminded of this odd little trait when I went to get lunch today. I was making a salad at the salad bar, and I found myself digging to the bottom of the bins for the lettuce and other accoutrements, just to make sure I was getting the coldest stuff. Then I looked around to see if anyone was watching me.

Now, if you invite me over for dinner or we have a pot-luck...don't worry about me not eating something because the temperature of the food is not to my typical liking. I mean, it's food, and if it looks good, I'm going to eat it. 


In case we don't meet again until next week (which is likely)

Happy Friday!
Have a Great Weekend!
Happy Game Day!
Happy Labor Day!

Becoming a Widow

No, Kyle didn't die. 

But, he's about to disappear from my life for about the next four and half months.

You see, it's FOOTBALL SEASON. And starting this Saturday, I will become a football widow. 

Don't get me wrong...I actually really like football. Especially college football. I actually watch the games and know quite a bit about what's going on. (And I try my best not to ask stupid questions or make remarks about things that I know nothing about) We're even going to the Texans preseason game tomorrow night, and I'm really excited...my first NFL game!

The widow part comes into play because not only is Kyle a huge college and NFL fan, but he's also in FOUR fantasy football leagues. 

Side note: I'll admit that I'm a bit of an enabler...one night, he had two drafts going on simultaneously, one online and the other over the phone. I volunteered to help him cross players off of his list as they were picked so that he would know who was left for his picks. Wife of the year right here!

So, that means that he will watch football Thursday, Saturday, Sunday, and Monday. Saturday is usually just a matter of watching OU play, for him. Sunday, specifically, he will have his iPhone, laptop, and TV all ready to rock...from noon until whenever the last game ends...usually around 10 p.m. It's ridiculous.

It might sound like I'm hacked off at him about it, but the truth is, I'm not. Kyle is a great husband and he doesn't do too much without me, or at least without considering me. He doesn't go out with his buddies that often, he doesn't even play a lot of golf anymore...so this is his hobby (ahem, addiction) for four months. And I'm okay with that.

As for me, I will primarily be watching college ball on Saturdays. I grew up an Auburn fan, but I went to school at Oklahoma State. Seeing that they're not in the same conference, I don't feel conflicted about cheering for both wholeheartedly. 

Just so you know, we don't do the whole OU/OSU "house divided" thing in our house...instead, we focus our extreme dislike on Texas and LSU. It works for us ; )

With all that said...

Go Pokes!!

Food glorious food...

I like food. 

I like food a lot. 

I like to eat it, cook it, watch TV shows about it, etc... I do not, however, consider myself a real "foodie". I say that primarily because I don't feel that I actually like the taste of enough foods to be considered a "foodie". 

I don't like cucumbers at all. No raw onions or peppers. Got sick on sushi once and haven't been able to return to it, although I love Japanese food in general. Cilantro tastes like soap...and apparently the new trend is to put cilantro on EVERYTHING. I went to an Italian restaurant the other night and was going to order some tomato bruschetta until I saw that it was topped with a cilantro pesto. What the heck? It's Italian...use some basil!

Anyway, being in a big city, I use sites/apps like Urbanspoon and Yelp a lot to help me/us find new, good places to eat. What I've noticed in a lot of the reviews, though, are what appears to be an over abundance of people that consider themselves real "foodies". Some I would even venture to call "food snobs". People that give reviews as though they've been working alongside Thomas Keller for the past five years. 

"The wine was good, but I felt that it was a bit warm...perhaps kept at 65 degrees instead of 62. The ceviche was not as authentic as what I had when we visted southern Mexico last year...to much acidity. It was apparent that the bread had not been baked that day, it was probably left over from yesterday. The herbal notes from the chicken dish that wafted my nose were exhilarating, but I was soon disappointed upon my first bite when the herbal scents did not have a juxtaposition in the dish, it begged for a creamy sauce of some sort."

Okay, that wasn't an actual quote...but that's just an example of the type of stuff I read. Seriously. 

Real food created by a chef is a true art form, and like a lot of other art forms...I'm self-aware enough to understand that just because I don't necessarily care for it, doesn't mean that it's bad! I just know what NOT to order next time. 


My other irk lately is the use of the word "authentic". More and more, I'm coming to the conclusion that there isn't much that is actually "authentic". And that's okay! 

Take tacos for instance. I bet you money that if you travel Mexico and visit small towns in the North, East, South, and West...no two tacos will be alike. Each version is influenced by the people and the ingredients on hand. There might be ones that you prefer over the others, but that doesn't make any of them more or less authentic. (Obviously, I'm excluding the likes of Taco Bell from this discussion.)


Last little food vent...As most of you know by now, Kyle works in the food service industry, and so he gets to see and eat a lot of really neat things...almost daily. What I don't like about this is when he sends me pictures of his lunch. 

His lunch looks like this:

My lunch looks like this: 

Even though I'm not a big sushi fan, I think you can see my frustration ; )

Smells from the kitchen...

The office building I work in has a cafe downstairs that has salads, sandwiches, and a hot bar with different stuff on it each day (meatloaf, lasagna, pork tenderloin, etc.) Anyway, every time I go down there to grab some lunch, I am immediately reminded of lunch time at the Kappa Delta house...it smells EXACTLY the same!

I just wish my sisters were down there to eat lunch with. Some still in their pajamas, some taking a break in between classes, some cramming for their exam in 20 minutes, and some flirting with the house boys ; )

We just thought we had it tough!

The last three months...

Sorry for going missing, but it's been a long, fun-filled, exhausting, wonderful summer. Actually, since we moved into our new house in May, we've had 8 (out of 14) weekends where we've either had people at our house, or have traveled...6 of them being in the last 6 weeks!

I can't remember all of it but here's a synopsis with pictures. Most involve kiddos.

......

We went to the zoo with Kyle's parents, brother, sister-in-law, and niece. We watched them give the elephants a bath. I was impressed with how well they are trained, but then I guess that's probably a key element to working a 6 ton animal. 

I thought these Ankole Cattle were really neat. Their horns are like 10-12 inches in diameter. I makes my head hurt looking at it.

I just like rhinos.

With some coaxing, our niece, Landry can be quite the ham.

...and then sometimes the instruction results in a scrunchy face, looking at a flower. 

Gus just helped my MIL color.

........

Maybe I have a twisted sense of humor...but I love blooper pictures. Especially of little kids. 

I'm saving this one of my niece, Georgiana (my brother's kid) for her senior yearbook. I call it, Franken-Baby. Obviously, it wouldn't be quite so funny if she were not in fact extremely cute, as evidenced below.

.....

Oh yeah, and we celebrated Kyle's 30th birthday! I took a ton of pictures, but later realized that they were mostly of the kids. This is the best one I got of the birthday boy. He's holding our friend's little boy, and he could not be cuter or sweeter...the baby, that is ; ) 

......

We went to Galveston to the beach with Kyle's cousin, her husband and their kiddos. It was a lot of fun and a much needed little getaway. 

Funny story, we were standing in the water when I felt something in my bathing suit. It's the gulf, so I just attributed it to seaweed or something...until I saw Kyle and his cousin start digging into their bathing suits. Long story short, we somehow came across a pod of itty-bitty baby shrimp, and they invaded our suits. I kind of felt like I needed to make an appointment with my OBGYN to make sure I wasn't going to birth a gulf shrimp in a few weeks or something. Pretty disgusting.

When we got back, the twin three year olds adopted Gus as their "new baby dog". They played with and pampered him...and tucked him in with their blankies when he got tired. 

That's by no means "it", but that's probably all I've got for now. Hopefully I can get back to my regular posts!