Crawfish

Natalie and Chris hosted a crawfish boil this weekend. We have never had crawfish before, so we were excited about trying something new.

The crawfish arrived via FedEx Sat morning (alive and kickin').

All of the crawfish survived the trip. No dead ones in the batch.

They smelled great the whole time they were cooking. Creole seasonings helped to season them to perfection!

Doesn't it look delicious?
Mmm mmm.

It's hard work getting the meat out, but it was tasty!

Microwave This!!!!

I completed all the requirements in Toastmasters to get the award that my workplace gives out. With the money I am buying some trees for the yard and an over the range microwave. The award money was sent to me today and I immediately spent some of it on the microwave. Jason helped to install it after work today. I can't wait to use it tomorrow! She's a beauty.

It's a Girl

Jason has been brewing beer with his buddies for a while now. The latest batch is Hibiscus Ginger Saison. Today he transferred the beer to the secondary and is was pink!!!

It's a girl beer!

Comparison of Bo and Chewy

The Obamas have a Portuguese Water Dog as their family pet. Chewy is a bit bummed out since he was hoping they would get a Goldendoodle. Both dogs look very similar. Chewy has been mistaken for a PWD before. Below are some photos so you can compare the two.

Caribbean Vacation Success!

We just enjoyed a wonderful week in the Caribbean with friends!

Jason and I just finished a week long Western Caribbean cruise on the Independence of the Seas. We had a great time! As an added bonus, were able to enjoy it with friends.

Here are some pictures and a link to more.

http://picasaweb.google.com/christineduffy

Everyone got dressed to the 9's for formal dinner.

Jason and I attempted to climb the rock wall.
Jason got 3/4 of the way up, I got about 1/2 way up.

We attempted to boogie board, which is hard work.


Here we are in Costa Maya. We had to skip this port due to water conditions.

Here we are enjoying the Maya Ruins in Tulum Mexico.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tulum

And we caught the beautiful sunset on the last evening on the ship.

Here are some pictures from the other couples that went with us.

http://www2.snapfish.com/thumbnailshare/AlbumID=345815017/a=26690983_12514337/t_=26690983

http://picasaweb.google.com/schoeff

Twitter

For those of you that use (or are interested in) Twitter you can follow me at http://twitter.com/DarthStrom. I can't promise frequent updates, but I thought this would be a good place to let people know I have an account.

Restaurant Week: March 9th - 15th

I like to visit a blog called Columbus Foodie. She talks about restaurants around central Ohio. She recently posted about an upcoming event that I think sounds very interesting.

Dine Originals Columbus’s Inaugural Restaurant Week!
42 restaurants offer a special fixed-price menu for one week (March 9th to 15th), for either $15 or $30. The restaurants vary from casual to fine dining so you can try out restaurants you've never been to or visit a favorite of yours.

I think I'll try to get out and visit one of these during that week. It's highly recommended that you make a reservation if you plan to dine in. Carryout is available for some of the restaurants - confirm that yourself if you plan to try that option.

What happens in Texas.....

Is posted on this blog! :)

We visited the Fort Worth Zoo!

Then after lunch we went to a fun center and played pool, bowled, and had some air hockey matches.

Sunday was the BIG day. Jim and Tara looked wonderful.

Before we left we made sure to see the new Dallas Cowboys stadium and have some Texas Dr. Pepper that is made with cane sugar instead of high fructose corn syrup.

Elijah

Elijah.

In the past, if I heard this name, I would imagine the actor Elijah Wood.

And if I heard the name Eli, I thought of the TV show Eli Stone.

Well something has given my brain a new image to draw up when I hear the name Elijah or Eli. It's my nephew. Jenna and Keith found out there is a little boy growing in Jenna's belly. They have decided to name him Elijah Duffy Caldwell. Now I will think of him whenever I hear those names.

I'm sure he will be cuter than either of the two Elijah's pictured above.

Winter Wonderland

LOST

If you know me, then you know I am a huge LOST fan.

The penultimate season starts tonight, aka the fifth season, on ABC. The first hour is just for recapping what has happened so far, following that are two all new episodes. So set your DVRs or watch it live with me.

Please ignore that the following image is stolen.

Surprise!

Today I had two surprises.

First, my work had an early dismissal today due to MLK Jr. day on Monday. This was great and I chose to spend the extra time getting my car serviced. w00t!

The second surprise of the day for me was not as wonderful. I can home from the car place, got the mail, put some dishes away in the kitchen, and then went to the bathroom. This is where the second surprise occurred - I know what you are thinking and don't worry I'm not going there :) The surprise was that a quarter of the toilet paper roll was missing! I realized right away this was something Chewy must have done. When he was a puppy we gave him the empty TP roll to play with and he LOVED that. I guess he's either trying to get the toy our of the wrapping, or he is protesting his new hairdo. Now he has been out and about while we are at work for a long time and this is the first I have ever had him get into trouble like this. He usually just eats a hole in a sock or a blanket - he has never touched the toilet paper.

Look at the guilt on that face!

Note the beautiful new hair do as well!

The scene of the crime.

So now we have to make sure the bathroom door is closed during the day before we both leave the house.

Chewy's new look

Chewy got his haircut a little early this year. Usually we'd cut his hair in the late winter/early spring, but we had to do it earlier this time since he was really matting. He kept licking the mats(i think because dirt and debris were in them) till his skin got irritated, so no more hair equals no more mats. We got a lot done this evening but we still have to tackle the head. So right now he has a BIG head and tiny body. Just like a supermodel or a lion.

Water

Have you ever tried drinking the 8 glasses of water a day? I'm trying to do that this year and I hope that my body adjusts to this change soon. I'm so tired of having to go to the bathroom all the time. I feel like I'm Jenna. :)

Jami's new place

Jami has moved to North Carolina and is settled into her house. Tom and Kris (her aunt and uncle) found a great house across the street for her to live in while she is going to school. Because of this she got to bring the dogs with her and that will help her feel more at home in NC.

Jenna had to ride with the dogs in the backseat on the way down. I appreciated this because I have a small allergy to Bailey's hair. It was tight quarters back there.

We all worked hard cleaning and unpacking the place so Jami could feel at home.

Jami really appreciated all the help because it would have taken her about 2 years to unpack all this stuff! We did it in 4 days (with 8 people).

Jenna and I made sure every box was emptied, and we ended up with a lot of empty boxes. This pile is only a third of the boxes we unpacked.
We had a kickoff breakfast Sunday morning with everyone.

Funny Video

Christmas Card Via the Blog

Merry Christmas & Happy New Year!

Jason and me in front of Poulnabrone Dolmen in the Burren, Ireland.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Poulnabrone_dolmen

Let's see that again!

I was thinking about that great video we did to show off Chewy's learned tricks back in 2007. I decided to repost it because the quality of the video is superb. Enjoy!

FYI Todd's dog Sienna could roll over so I had to get Chewy to learn something even better since he has never learned the command "roll over."

Jason's Concert

Jason's Christmas concert was wonderful. He and some other trombone players had a special section in the concert where they played songs with only the trombones.

Hopefully if you missed this concert you can make it to a summer concert in 2009.