Rental House Fun

Moving away from my confusing post yesterday about travel planning, the #2 item (really it's #1 to be honest) that is keeping our house quite messy, me from cooking, and us from sleeping is readying our rental house. Even though it's connected to ours via breezeway, that's where the similarities end. It's old, it's been neglected for about 5 years, and our renters are eager to move in. We've made a ton of progress, but there is oh-so-much-more to do.

Plumbing - repaired.
Fans - replaced.
Porch light - replaced.
Funky live electrical wires sticking wildly out of the house - fixed (and turned into a Christmas Tree light socket with convenient light switch in bedroom! Genius, Ryan!)
Fence - repaired, extended, stained.
House siding - cleaned.
Windows - cleared of paint overspray.
Screens - cleaned.
Kitchen knobs - repaired.
Paint - we won't go there and give them Monday to fix it.

The list literally goes on and on. I suppose it's nice to know that we've learned quite a bit on our own in the past 9 years of living together...using a dremel drill, pricing stoves, digging out caulk, razor blading windows, etc. etc. etc. But it's frustrating when you are spending hours and hours on a house...that is a "theoretical" investment since it won't pay off for a number of years and your own house gets a few extra layers of dust on it. Oh well, we're two people not five.

Even with pounds of stress, we had to get out of the house and walked over to the Alamo Drafthouse for a movie last night. I love the 5-10 minute walk, past the local church, by the fire station, zip zoom you're there and ready for a movie with a big pitcher of beer. "Burn after Reading" was hilarious and much needed.

Off to buy caulk, screws, and a dusting brush for the shop vac.

Tschüß!

Chicken Korma (Huhn Korma) and Potatoes in Tomato Sauce (Kartoffeln in der Tomatensauce)

Another night of Indian food -- this one turned out ok, but not as tasty as the cashew sauce. I think they made it ultra healthy and that took a lot of the really neat flavors away. I also think I've had it with Coconut Milk which makes it sweet. I did like learning how to add yogurt (we used Bulgarian Yogurt, something we get locally...it's so good) without curdling it. You add it tablespoon by tablespoon and it just melts into the mixture and props it up.



Not traveling for work can get me in an exploratory mood - it's so easy to get into a funk with work, home, work, home, work, home, that you forget how cool your city really is and all the fascinating places out there. So, we hit the local Indian food market. It actually is rather nice and situated in a new strip mall.



After walking in, two men greeted us and we started puttering around. We were the only people in there - a nice lady (probably the wife of one of the men) asked if we needed help and I explained we were looking for Curry Leaves. I had thought they would be dried like Bay Leaves, but she took us to a fridge and they are fresh beautiful leaves. She also helped me find Onion Seeds (Nigella), which are these little black seeds. We picked up a huge bag of Gram Masala, a mix of spices used in a lot of currys, for $2.50. The woman explained they get it direct from the factory, no middle person.



I really enjoyed the Potatoes in Tomato Sauce -- they were delicious. For both dishes, I used onions from the local farmer's market. These aren't your traditional bulb onions...they have a thicker stalk on it. Almost like a green onion that was allowed to grow very large. I'm not hitting up the market today, since Ryan leaves tomorrow for California, and I'll have to pick the stinkiest, most vinegary food to make. Sauerbraten anyone??



On another note, Germany did fantastic this week in the Euro 2008 - they skipped by Austria and pounded Portugal. Up next is Turkey. I'm heading to Mother Egans to watch Russia play the Netherlands. My last name is dutch so I suppose I should root for them...

OK - I have a preview for you here -- the most important part of our house has finally been finished...and no, it's not the coffee table (where we honestly eat a lot of our carefully prepared meals...especially when Dancing with the Stars is going on...terrible, huh)...here you go:



Tschüß!!

Pantry Fixes

May is almost bye-bye; good thing we knocked a small, but big project off the list -- the pantry. When we bought this place the pantry only had a handful of shelves. We would joke about an episode of Some Random House-Buying Show on HGTV (there are a million of them) and the couple was showing off their kitchen post-move.

The woman opens the pantry and they have lots of room but only 3 shelves -- which are stacked high with food -- as she reaches to put chips on top of the burgeoning pile, she comments, "We love our pantry" and just pushes it in, like it has tape on the bottom and will hopefully stick.

We've felt that way for months and actually laughing make that comment quite often. So, we had enough and went to Home Depot with a shelf to figure it out. Of course, it was wider than most boards and not wide enough for others. We'd basically have to cut-to-fit. We found some already-laminated boards, but couldn't find someone to help us cut it - and then heard they really don't cut that. What?!

That did lead to some excitement for Ryan because it meant he was getting a new tool! He's been gathering a nice collection lately: lawnmower, weed wacker, wallboard saw, and now a jigsaw. After traversing back-and-forth (I think we made 4 rounds in Home Depot) we finally bought our stuff and went home to make the shelves.



One thing led to another, and all the shelves in the kitchen received a nice makeover. It works so much better now! Putting dishes away is a breeze -- I think most people stock their kitchen shelves when the first move in, shoving things wherever there is space. Having Ryan re-think it from scratch was invaluable. Oh...yes...I do have to admit...Ryan did pretty much everything. Aw, my hero.

After all of that, I pulled out some ground turkey and made some awesome Turkey Burgers -- made them up and put them on the grill. Fantastic! They also made a nice topping for Ryan's salads during the week. I'm proud of how we've been eating super well and he's been working out so much! He's a beefcake now!!


Yummy Turkey Burgers

I haven't run for over a month -- partly because I've been sick the past few weeks with a nasty cough. Don't know where this is coming from but also suspect the new job has something to do with it. I won't go into it, because I working hard to not think about work today. I am having separation issues with work-life right now. It's not that I have so much work projects going on...it's all internally-driven and I need to stop! Ack, there I go again, damn it!!!



Grete is super cute -- I love her. She follows me around all day, especially if I work from home. Isaac is wonderful too -- happy as can be.

OK, menu planning time!

Tschüß!!

Das Leben Der Anderen

With our new TV, also came a renewal with NetFlix! So, the first movie was Das Leben Der Anderen (The Lives of Others), one of the best German films I've seen. It won the Oscar last year for Foreign Film and is an amazing story of the GDR, their "informants," and the fall of the wall.

I so enjoy listening to the language and trying to get past using the subtitles. Hard for me, since my vocabulary is still schlecht (bad) and sometimes the words run so fast together it's hard to pick anything up. (Which is why we just need to live there and that'll solve the problem!)

I was going to make a casserole last night, but a tree branch was literally scraping paint off the side of the house so we ran to Home Depot, bought a extended saw and trimmed it. So, instead we had pizza.

Off to another wonderful Sunday in Austin!

Tschüß!

(footnote: I totally misspelled the movie title, but have fixed it now. Oops!)

Lights and Buses

Phew, I survived the week. Work was full of re-organizations, work on structuring the new team, building curriculum, etc. Home was closing the house, trying to find time to relax (I didn’t find much of that), and starting some little improvements.

On Wednesday, we arranged a dinner with our friends Melissa and Spencer, old neighbors from Mira Monte who moved a few months ago, at planned to meet them downtown at The Belmont. Ryan doesn’t get off work until 7:00 and I didn’t really want to drive from home 2 miles and then have to BOTH drive home.

So, I took the bus. My first ride in Austin and it wasn’t bad for 50 cents. I was only on there for five minutes and it picked me up 1/2 block from our house. It dropped me off about 2 1/2 blocks from Ryan’s work. I loved it! And I’m going to do it again in a few minutes...going to a b-day happy hour at the Gingerman downtown. I heard it’s closing, which makes me sad. It has about 75 beers on tap.

Ryan also worked on a lighting improvement project for the driveway -- it’s quite long and very dark at night...so he found a contractor, met him, and it’s done! It’s beautiful...absolutely stunning!




Better get ready for the evening...and the bus ride. Kind of lame but oh-so-very German.

Tschüss!

p.s. Happy Oktoberfest!!!

We are just two geeks

Early in our relationship, I thought I was the “geek” of the family. I love Star Trek, fantasy books, computers, Lord of the Rings, new and old David Bowie, etc. Then, we started to discover Ryan’s affinity toward cars, hair product, and electronics. We both eventually settled on the wonderful fact that we are both deep, life-long geeks.

Which means we are perfectly suited for each other. I make sure our wireless network is up (just bought a new Apple base station -- fast!), computers are updated, and that we see the newest Star Trek movie. Ryan makes sure the cars are cool, our hair is rocking, and the music sounds good.


Along the lines of the last comment, we did invest in our first set of speakers -- they are amazing! Also, a new Rotel receiver...all in preparation for the TV stand and TV that we have yet to buy -- waiting for our other house to close before we commit to it.

Craigslist update -- I put 6 things up last night and so far 5 are claimed! Hopefully they all pan out and I get can rid of things this afternoon. I love craigslist because you’re not just selling it...you’re “passing it on” to another family. I sold our fake ficus tree for $2 -- we’ve had it for 8 years and it has been in every single apartment/condo/house of ours...but I wanted to give it to someone who would enjoy and appreciate that.

Tschüss!