the new carpet!

finally wading through some long overdue tasks on the new computer -- here's some pictures of our new carpet. it was freakishly clean because we were having company, fyi ;)

we still need to paint in here!  and get a new window shade.. and put stuff on the walls... this room's on deck.

motown philly back again!

Boyz II Men was at Epcot tonight!  Nate and I headed out after work and they were AWESOME.  Well... I thought they were.  Nate thought the Ventures were better, but I was in junior high heaven!

pictures...

so i finally updated more pics!  i'm only up to august though, lots more to come! :)

and now we relax!

we hosted the 'ivey olympics' lastnight :)  we spent most of the week cleaning the house, the garage, buying food, buying beer, etc.  and now we can relax!  we had a good time, so hopefully everyone else did too.  we ended up with three events (out of a planned 6 events) flip cup, darts, and wii olympics.  nate bought some cool trophies from good will and had little plaques made for Ivey Olympics 2008- ha :)

today we're cleaning the house, eating chinese takeout, and heading to buy a flash for my camera- yay!  oh, and probably some football watching (sigh) because PSU is doing well this season.

have a great weekend!

yummy sherry vinaigrette

i've been all about this dressing lately.  i had to buy a bottle of sherry vinegar for something and used like... a tablespoon, so i searched for a salad dressing recipe that included it and ta-da!  here, for your culinary pleasure :)  i highly recommend it with spinach and goat cheese (although it's good on pretty much anything):

2 teaspoons sherry vinegar
1/4 teaspoon sea salt
freshly ground black pepper
1/2 teaspoon dijon mustard
1 small clove garlic, minced
1/4 cup extra-virgin olive oil

Place the vinegar, salt, pepper, mustard, and garlic in a medium size bowl and whisk together until blended.  Slowly add the olive oil, whisking constantly until the dressing is emulsified.

great... someone else at work now thinks my name is ivey

it's always so awkward to correct them for some reason....

wii fitness

we bought a wii fit this weekend and it's awesome :)  nate and i have been using it both for fun and exercise (which i guess is the point, isn't it?....)  it both encourages and harasses you ("a bit too busy to work out yesterday, bri?)

as you do more exercise, you unlock more activities or reps on existing exercises.  i'm a pretty good hula hooper and ski jumper :)  definitely need to work on my balance though!

so krau-zones it is!

and the recipe is from marty's side of the family :)  apparently my german roots ;)

kraut-burgers!

so we had kraut-burgers while john and linda were here and i got a chance to take some pictures of them for this post :)  the ingredient list is quite short:

• 1 lb of lean ground beef
• jar of sauerkraut (i don't use the whole jar, but i eyeball the amount)
• 1 can of thin crust pilsbury pizza dough (or any pizza dough of your preference)

brown the hamburger in a large skillet and when it's mostly done, add sauerkraut until it looks like the amount of each are about equal (and drain the sauerkraut first!).  get the hamburger-kraut mixture nice and hot.

while that's going, roll out the pizza dough -- i usually divide the thin crust pizza dough into 8 squares.  place a square on a cookie sheet, spoon the hamburger-kraut mixture onto one half of it, and fold over, tucking in the sides.  essentially, it should look like a little calzone... but with sauerkraut.

then bake at 400 until they look nice and toasty... mmmmm.

serve with copious amounts of yellow mustard :)

we had them with sauteed green beans, and a salad.

so mom, who's recipe was this?  yours?  marty's?

and everyone else... should we rename this recipe to make it more appetizing?

disney disney disney!

we spent our weekend with john, linda and ross enjoying disney :)  well, actually... linda and i spent yesterday shopping :)  but the rest of the time was disney!

today we started off our day with some delectable french pastries from our neighbors (who make them and sell them at the local farmers' market).  here's a pic of them:

yum.  seriously yum.  those are almond croissants, pain du chocolat, and rasberry napoleons.  after breakfast, we headed to animal kingdom and it was HOT.  but we had a good day and hit all the attractions we wanted to :)  and hardly any rain, which we can't say about last week.  my highlight?  we got to see jiminy cricket!  and pocahontas.  we rarely wait in line for the characters, but the lines were quite short so:

nate took this picture of pocahontas and i and had trouble with the camera.  i ended up having to go back over to him and fiddle with it, so i apologized to pocahontas and she just laughed and said "men!"  :)  funny.

ross and john rode kali while the rest of us opted out (too wet!) but got to see them float by:

we had dinner at downtown disney and ended our evening at the california grill (at the contemporary resort) for wine and cheese and a fantastic view of the magic kingdom fireworks.  a very full, but very fun day :)

a little poetry for your weekend

by one of my favorites, sara teasdale:

I Am Not Yours

I am not yours, not lost in you,

Not lost, altho' I long to be

Lost as a candle lit at noon,

Lost as a snow-flake in the sea.

You love me, and I find you still

A spirit beautiful and bright,

Yet I am I, who long to be

Lost as a light is lost in light.

Oh plunge me deep in love -- put out

My senses, leave me deaf and blind,

Swept by the tempest of your love,

A taper in a rushing wind.

ah.... food & wine (and a little bit of rain)

we just got home from a night at epcot.  the rain held out long enough for us to see johnny lang who i really enjoyed.  definitely going to have some new music on my ipod :)  we tried foods from turkey, canada, greece, poland, and i can't remember the rest :)  it was tasty!  but it was also raining!  we stuck it out with ponchos and watched the fireworks from a great spot since a good lot of people had abandoned ship by then.

now we're home, and in dry clothes ;)  looking forward to the weekend!

and we're back in business!

and since it's late, just a picture of cassie and mom from roanoke and our visit to virginia :)

pictures returning soon!

well our desktop PC stopped connecting to the internet a few weeks ago so that's why i haven't posted ANY pictures lately.  but our new one will be arriving tomorrow (yippee!) so pictures will be making a comeback soon :)

linda, john, and ross have arrived and we're getting ready to head out for some tasty mexican food :)

whirlwind couple of days!

man we were busy yesterday!  we worked outside all day and it was well worth it :)  nate pressure washed the patio and most of the house, i replanted the flower boxes with a flower i can't remember and some lantana (which i hope will trail down the front of the window boxes), we trimmed, we swept, we rearranged and are now pretty proud of our house exterior :)

tonight we've been working on the interior which needed some cleaning.  now we're (almost) prepared for john, linda and ross to visit although i need to make a trip to the grocery store, we're almost completely out of food!  although we do have beer... hmm...

also, an exciting note for this fall is that epcot will be featuring quite a few of my favorite musical acts from way back, including:  starship, en vogue, boyz II men, jon secada, sister hazel... the list goes on!  we'll be checking them out over the next few weeks :)  and hopefully doug's recommendation, cowboy mouth as well :)

you mean our sliding door is connected to a patio?

we absolutely love our patio but from about... may until now, it might as well not even be there.  it's way too hot!  as a result, we've not done too much along the lines of cleaning it, taking care of the plants, etc.  but now that the weather is getting beautiful, we're cleaning it up so we can do our usual (pretty much spend all of our time out there).  bring on the pressure washer, broom, scrub and wash the cushions, throw out the plants i killed (oops!), clip back the ones that survived, etc.

also in the name of beautiful weather, it's festival time in the central florida area, this weekend was winter garden's music fest.  they had over 20 musical acts playing all weekend starting friday night.  my favorite was a just a guy and his guitar (3 guitars actually), nate's favorite was a band we saw inside the mooncricket grille.  the drummer was the lead singer which i'd never seen before- that must be tough!  i think john and frank should get on the schedule for next year, they could definitely rock the crowd :)

register to vote!

register to vote!  cool video (with some profanity, if that bothers you) --

bottom line?  you can head here:  http://maps.google.com/vote and find out what you need to do to register.  by mid-october, they'll show you where to head to vote.

man i'm tired!

since nate and i get the benefits of being cast members, we never feel pressured to get our 'money's worth' out of the parks.  if we're tired- we go home!  if we're hungry- we leave, and eat!  but today we headed out to universal studios, our first time paying to head to a theme park in orlando since we've moved here.  it was fun :)  but nate definitely turned into the 'superdad' variety that paid to get in and now wants to make sure we eek every experience we can :)  he packed his cargo pants with granola bars and every time i whined that i was getting hungry, he handed me a granola bar and told me to buck up - lots to do before the parks close at 6!  he finally let me have a hot dog around 3 pm- whew!

:)  our favorite ride?  (we had the same favorite)  the first one we rode, the hulk, at islands of adventure!  it was awesome :)  full on rollercoaster fun and a whole lot of screaming loops.  we also really liked the mummy (dark themed rollercoaster) and the simpsons (brand new vitrual fun).

and now?  i'm home, collapsed on the couch- that was a whole lot of walking and a really long day for just being 9 to 5!  we had some kraut burgers and settled in to watch the penn state game (key feature for me?  the couch!).

oh... kraut burgers?  one of the weirdest things i make for dinner, recipe courtesy of my mother.  i'll post that recipe sometime soon- it's not too complicated ;)

hail hail to old purdue

all hail to our old gold and black!

i was at my old alma mater last week for a recruiting trip and really enjoyed the time.  it's been a long time since i was there (3 years ago for anna & rick's wedding) and even longer since i graduated (6 years ago now!).  it was interesting to remember who i was then and what i wanted out of life since you spend a lot of time in college thinking about where you're headed (or at least i did, i spent a lot of time writing in my journal in coffee shops!) :)

a lot has changed there, several new buildings and WAY more eateries and places to hang out than ever existed when i was there.  it's neat to see the progress and exciting to be part of an institution that continues to get better but part of me wants it to stay exactly the same as when i was there.  silly i know :)

but looking back on everything that's happened since i headed off to college:  has it all turned out the way i planned?  absolutely not!  but i'm 100% happy with how it has turned out and that's all that matters :)

a few photos:

freshman year, day one.  sarah m. and i were potluck roommates  :)

senior year, from the left, sarah s., cyndi, regan and me (we all lived together junior and senior year) :)

also senior year, anna and sarah m. -- they co-oped, so every other semester they were away for work.

 

my home away from home!  (once after a bad break-up, i said to sarah s.... "you know i really haven't been sleeping well since he and i broke up."  she said "do you think that's because you're spending ALL your time at the coffee shop?"  hmmmm.....)

and finally, graduation!  from the left, cyndi, me, and sarah s.

been mia!

sorry y'all, i've been an absentee blogger again.  and i was doing so well!!  i've been traveling, nate's been traveling, yadda yadda yadda.  also our computer is out of commission as far as the internet is concerned.  we still have the laptop but all my photos are on the desktop so no good!

in other news, is it fall yet?  i can't wait for the beautiful florida winter to kick in, when other people are jealous of our weather instead of vice versa!  our porch has been sorely neglected since it's too hot to even think about sitting outside for leisure purposes (although we have had a few cooler nights here and there).

the steelers have kicked off the season with a win, and game two is currently underway.  i'm in the market for a willie parker jersey, one that's cut for a woman so it doesn't go down to my knees like all of nate's jerseys :)  i saw a woman with a really great willie parker jersey that had glittery gold in place of all the usual gold, but i can't seem to find it online.  i'll keep looking :)