Meet Our Fur Baby

The end of 2010 was rough for us and we couldn't wait to see the back side of it. However, we did start 2011 off great with the addition of our fur baby, Rex. This is the first cat for me, but Jim has had several cats before.

On New Year's Day, which happens to be Jim's birthday, we went to the pet adoption held by Lost Dog and Cat Rescue at the PetSmart store in Seven Corners. We had made a trip out to the Fairfax Animal Shelter on December 30 and met a couple of cats there, but ended up not taking one home because we couldn't get a good feel for them. I planned to go back on the 31st and pick one while Jim was at work, but when I got out there, the shelter was closed. This information was nowhere to be found on the county's website, by the way. I was really disappointed, because I wanted to get the cat as a birthday present for Jim and the adoption fee is only $30 for an already fixed cat.

Jim liked two of the cats at the PetSmart adoption more than the others, although they were all cute. The other top contender was a pretty black and white girl, but she was currently on an antibiotic eye drop and we didn't want to start off with a kitty that needed meds. So we settled on Rex and we couldn't be happier. We brought him home and started him off in the guest room, where he promptly hid under the bed, but by the end of the day he was ready to play and explore the rest of the house. The rescue's best guess is that he is about 8 months old and we love him to pieces.

Thanksgiving Before and After

We had my sister-in-law, brother-in-law and brother-in-law's brother over for Thanksgiving today. It is so nice to have a house that is big enough to have people over for the holidays.

This is a picture of the table set before it was was heavily laden with food. We used my Mom's china on my Great-Grandmother's table.


And this is what the kitchen looks like after turkey, cranberries, mashed potatoes, broccoli casserole, sweet potato souffle, stuffing, gravy, pumpkin pie and carrot cake.


We have a lot to be thankful. I hope everyone had a great day with friends and family.

A Walk in the Woods

November 7, 2010

Happy Halloween!

Big Weekend

Once again, we over-booked our weekend, but we had a great time. Saturday morning we drove out to The Plains and did this corn maze. The weather was fantastic and it was great to spend the time outside. We were doing a good job, right up until we got to the last station. We couldn't find it for love or money and just wandered around in the same circle in the big chicken's wing for about 20 minutes until we figured out how to get out. All together, it took us an hour do to the maze.

From there, we went to the home of a high school friend of Jim's, whom he hadn't seen in a long time. We stayed and visited for about an hour and then headed off looking for wineries, since it would have been a shame to be out there and not go to at least one. We found The Winery at La Grange I did the whole tasting (about 16 wines) and Jim stopped after the whites. We bought two bottles, the pinot grigio and the cuvee.

Sunday night, we went to Ford's Theatre and saw a production of Sabrina Fair. I love the theater there. It's a small house and really every seat is good. We were in the third row, to the right and there was only one small bit where we had a bad sight line. The set made fantastic use of the stage, which has a very big thrust (the part that sticks out from the opening). There was no curtain for this show, either, which was interesting in terms of how the play opened and the "curtain" call. I was a little disappointed in the performance of the actor's playing Sabrina, who could have toned it down a bit, and Linus, who could have been more arrogant and aloof. I may have been spoiled by Audrey Hepburn and Humphrey Bogart, but it was still a perfect lovely evening out.

August Cooks Week 8

Pizza Pot Pie is not for the faint of heart. There is a lot of meat and a lot of cheese. Even Jim, who has been known to put away some food, said, “Are you going to use all of that?”

I made very few changes to this recipe. I used 3 lbs of sweet Italian sausage and 1 lb. of hot sausage and I substituted dried herbs instead of fresh. Other than that, I followed it as written.

After a bit of trial and error, I discovered that kitchen shears are the perfect thing for cutting sausage. I browned it in batches, because my skillet is not big enough to hold it all at once.

I always get my pizza dough at Trader Joe’s. They have a plain white, whole wheat and garlic & herb dough and best of all, it’s only 99 cents!

My top shrunk up when it baked, but it didn't overflow. I waited until the very end of the week to make this recipe, but it was worth the wait.

Gettysburg, PA

We were invited to attend a birthday celebration for Jim's high school youth pastor today in Westminster, MD. It turns out that Westminster is only about 30 miles from Gettysburg and it would have been a shame to get that close and not see the battlefield.

We have gone to the battlefield in Manassas before and were able to see the park in a couple of hours. I figured that Gettysburg would be the same, but I was mistaken. We could have spent a couple of days there reading all the markers. There is a 24-mile auto tour through the park. We spent three hours and stop for four of the 16 markers. I am glad that we sat down with the map before we started and picked the few sites that we wanted to be sure to see, otherwise we never would have gotten to them.

This is stop five, the Virginia Memorial. The monument to Virginia's soldiers is behind you in this picture and the field is the site of Picket's Charge on July 3rd, 1863.

We also stopped at the last stop, Soldier's National Cemetery, where Abraham Lincoln gave the Gettysburg Address during the dedication. This monument marks the spot of his address.

The weather today could not have been nicer and we had a great time. Since it's only 2 hours from Washington, we will definitely have to go again for an overnight trip so we can spend more time exploring Gettysburg.