flippin' ridiculous

can i just say, it is 41°F (feels like 38°F), and that really stinks? like, seriously. it's april 29th. bryan thought i was joking when i told him i wouldn't feel safe warm weather wise until june, but i was serious.


oliver & his breakfast prunes. :)

friday night, oliver slept like an angel: down at 7pm, up around 12am to eat, and back down until 5:30am. flipping awesome. after his morning nap, we headed out to do some shopping for kitchen stuffs. we really have our hearts set on finding a recycled material countertop. seeing as how we couldn't find a dealer of icestone, our current favorite, we decided to check out some vetrazzo. we went to a nearby design center, where the sales guy did everything he could to sway us AWAY from vetrazzo, and instead go with one of their granite or quartz options... AND upsell us on their crappy cabinetry. we eventually convinced him to get us a quote on the vetrazzo, but even if we decide to go with it, we sure won't be buying from him. we had much better luck at the tile shop. we found some beautiful dark gray/black slate tiles that will work perfectly. just need to find a matching countertop. ;) we then headed up to lowe's, to compare their corian/granite/etc options to those of home depot (exactly the same, pretty much, just different names). we decided to go home and mull over what we had seen, and to let ollie nap. we tried going to milwaukee marble & granite to look for a marble remnant (which figures into our design) as well as the granite gallery, but both were closed. no such luck.

we stopped by our favorite grocery store to pick up some food for sunday dinner, including beets, which i was happy to find had full beet tops so i could finally make the beet green calzone i had been thinking about. they turned out really, really delicious. we added some sweet italian sausage, since we didn't have a ton of greens AND bryan needs protein. we used some of his famous homemade pizza dough. the filling was cider vinegar braised beet greens with sauteed onions and garlic, crumbled feta, and the sausage. they were really, really good. did i say that? ;) definitely a new favorite.

saturday night wasn't as good for oliver; he is getting 2 bottom teeth and he's feeling pretty miserable. i gave him lots of extra cuddles in the wee hours of sunday morning, and we skipped church so the two of us could nap. dad fired up the pit smoker that morning, and he and mom had us over for a smoked beef brisket dinner. i made a marinated beet salad and bryan made bread pudding (with apple brandy marinated raisins, and an apple brandy creme anglaise... bryan, ftw). le yum. ollie had fun hanging out with nana and grandpa, who i'm pretty sure he favors over us. ;)


yesterday, i spoke with a green design center in chicago that carries icestone, and they said they have recently started working with someone in the milwaukee area to install it here. WOOHOO! he said he would find the information and email me; no email yet but i will definitely be calling them later this afternoon. it's pretty important to us!

last night for dinner, i made a hammy mac n cheese with some of our leftover smoked ham. omg. i'm not gonna lie - it was good. made bryan all starry eyed. i still got it. ;) i made a cream sauce, using butter instead of oil as the base for my roux. i added onions and thyme, and once the cream was in, a healthy dose of white wine. i used both provolone and cheddar; half melted directly into the sauce and half stirred into the pasta. cubed the ham and tossed that in, then poured it into a casserole, topped with breadcrumbs and butter, and baked for a bit. i seared some yellow squash, and that was dinner. i am WAY looking forward to leftovers for lunch tomorrow.

this evening, we have an appointment with our home depot designer to finalize the plans and order the cabinets. the clock will start ticking!! the contractor who does the cabinet installs came out for the final measurement, and we found some additional changes we need to make. we'll get those in tonight, verify everything, then push the button. i'm excited and nervous - we have a TON of work to do.

other than that, we're pretty boring. poor oliver has been feeling SO miserable with teething. and i noticed this morning it feels like he's got some coming in the top as well. i'd rather get it all out of the way at once, so that works for me, but i feel pretty bad for the little munchkin. we're having good success with the teething tablets, which are homeopathic (so we feel better giving that to him on a fairly regular basis), and we've resorted to tylenol a few times as well. he really likes chewing on wet washcloths... and pretty much anything else he can get into his mouth. :)

no fun plans for the week. this weekend, we'll try to go to those marble and granite places, and HOPEFULLY we'll get to check out the icestone as well. bryan and i are going on a saturday afternoon DATE to see iron man at the matinee at the super theater. i'm also going to clean the house, and nap. i hope.

HEY - whatchoo' looking at??


WFD: pork chops. probably greek style. maybe i'll make a little beet salad side with the leftover feta. and perhaps potatoes. or - ooo - potatoes with feta. and a salad. screw the beets. ;)